Source: Radio New Zealand
Emergency services carried an elderly blind person and another in a wheelchair from their flooded Wellington home.
Torrential rain from thunderstorms in Wellington before dawn on Monday morning caused flooding and landslips, with the city’s southern suburbs worst affected.
Berhampore resident Luke Furness said police woke him as they were evacuating his Akatea Street neighbours.
“Pretty much the whole street was getting evacuated. Just scenes you know. You didn’t expect that when you went to sleep that you wake up and see cars under water, houses – a metre of water walking through their lounge – it’s mental,” he said.
“Woke up to neighbours in distress. Looked outside and there was police and emergency services everywhere. They were carrying my neighbours out, who are old.”
A house damaged in flooding on Akatea Street, Berhampore. MARK PAPALII / RNZ
Furness said one his neighbours was blind and the other was in a wheelchair.
He said emergency services carried them to his house in tears.
“He literally turned up to my house in bare feet, undies so I had to get him some clothes, dry them off,” he said.
“I dropped them down to the City Mission and down there it’s pretty hectic too… it’s pretty sad to see.”
Luke Furness. MARK PAPALII / RNZ
Furness said he had never seen anything like the flooding that struck his street.
He said water flowed down his driveway, but his house was not badly affected.
Emergency services on Akatea Street, Berhampore on Monday morning. MARK PAPALII / RNZ
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
