Source: Radio New Zealand
Work resumes at the Mount Maunganui landslide site on January 26. RNZ/Nick Monro
Regions across the North Island are recovering from last week’s deadly storms.
Homes were evacuated, floods covered districts, and slips blocked roads and took lives in the worst hit areas.
RNZ breaks down just how devastating last week’s storm was by the numbers.
Death toll
Nine people have been killed or are presumed dead after last week’s storms.
Police said some remains of victims had been found and six people were unaccounted for following the slip at a popular campground.
Max Furse-Kee, 15, Sharon Maccanico, 15 and Susan Knowles, 71, are three of the six Mt Maunganui landslide victims. SUPPLIED
Two Auckland teenagers, a Swedish tourist and a Morrinsville teacher were among the missing.
In Pāpāmoa, a child was killed alongside his grandmother after a landslide struck a house in Welcome Bay.
The body of a 47-year-old man was found in Warkworth, North Auckland, after he was washed away while fording a river earlier last week.
In 2023, eight people were killed in Hawkes Bay during Cyclone Gabrielle. The total death toll in that storm was 11.
Rainfall
A number of places across the North Island saw their wettest day on record last week.
MetService said Tauranga, Whitianga, and Whakatāne all saw their records broken on Wednesday.
Flooding near Papamoa Hills, Tauranga, in the area where a house was destroyed in a slip overnight. RNZ/Alan Gibson
Tauranga received 274mm of rain, making it the wettest day on record, while Whitianga saw 247.6mm, and 114.2mm for Whakatāne.
From midnight on Wednesday to midday Thursday, Whitianga also saw a months’ worth of rain, 353mm.
Flooding in Whitianga last week. RNZ/Charlotte Cook
Other places that faced a months’ rain in 36 hours Hicks Bay, Whakatāne, and Kerikeri, MetService said.
Slips
NZTA reported a number of slips across the roading network in storm hit regions.
There are 40 slip and debris sites now confirmed in the Waioweka Gorge, with seven severe sites.
A slip on State Highway 2 through the Waioweka Gorge. Supplied/NZTA
“We estimate that in total a minimum of 1,000 more truck loads at of debris will need to be removed from the area.” said Rob Service, NZTA’s Controller for State Highway Two/Waioweka Gorge Response and Recovery.
Recovery work had also restarted at the Mount Maunganui slip on Monday morning.
Work was put on hold on Sunday due to the risk of further slips after a crack was spotted on the cliff face.
Property Damage
A number of buildings were badly hit during the wild weather.
In the Coromandel, ten properties had been red stickered, meaning they were unsafe to return to.
A further 16 had also been yellow stickered, while 16 others had been white stickered.
A property is extensively damaged as a landslide on Mount Paku’s Motuhoa Road comes down behind it. RNZ/Calvin Samuel
There been 115 properties damaged, however Thames Coromandel Civil Defence said that figure could change.
In the Bay of Plenty, four red placards and 11 yellow placards had been issued.
Tauranga City Council Controller Tom McEntyre said council conducted a number of rapid building assessments across the city.
“The assessed locations are dispersed across Tauranga, including Welcome Bay, Gate Pā, Bethlehem, and Ōtūmoetai,” he said.
Several properties in the Whangārei District had also been red and yellow stickered.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
