Rescuers are searching for people buried by a large landslide at a campsite in Mount Maunganui after a tropical storm swept through ’s North Island.
Emergency services were called to the site in the Bay of Plenty holiday spot near Tauranga early Thursday after debris hit tents, campervans, a swimming pool and a toilet block. Video footage showed firefighters searching through a damaged building.
The number of people unaccounted for is in the “single digits,” Police Assistant Commissioner Tim Anderson said at a press conference near the site, describing the storm as a “one-in-100-year event.”
Anderson said the effort remained a rescue operation.
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell said it was not appropriate to provide further details about those missing at this stage.
“There’s got to be a high degree of sensitivity from all of us for the people that are sitting in that building behind us,” he said at the press conference. “And for anyone that’s a parent or has a spouse, you’d understand the stress that they’re currently under.”
States of local emergency have been declared across the country’s northernmost region and parts of the east coast, including summer holiday destinations on the Coromandel Peninsula and in the Bay of Plenty.
Thousands of people remain without power, while floodwaters have cut off entire towns.
Police are continuing to search for a man who was swept away yesterday by a swollen river near the town of Warkworth, north of Auckland, according to a statement. Local media reported two other people are missing after a landslide in Papamoa, near Tauranga.
The prolonged heavy rain was caused by a tropical low that struck the country, national forecaster MetService said.
“These impacts are likely to be long and far-reaching and may extend into the long weekend ahead for popular holiday hotspots,” MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said. Businesses and public offices are closed on Jan 26 for largest city Auckland’s anniversary day.