Wellington Floods: Man Missing, Residents Evade Landslides After Record Rain
A man is missing after severe flooding struck New Zealand's capital, with other Wellington residents sharing their harrowing survival stories following record-breaking rainfall on Sunday night. The city, known for its houses perched on hills, faced unprecedented deluges that triggered landslides and inundated streets.
Record Rainfall and a Missing Resident
Wellington Mayor Andrew Little confirmed to Radio New Zealand that the city was drenched by 77 mm (3 inches) of rain in less than an hour, marking the heaviest rainfall on record for the area. In the aftermath, Philip Sutton, who was looking after a property for his sister in Karori, in Wellington's west, has not been seen since early Monday when a torrent of floodwater smashed through the home, according to local reports.
Tim McPherson, assisting with cleanup near the site where Sutton vanished, described the flooding as the worst he had ever witnessed in the region. He explained to Stuff that a massive macrocarpa tree had fallen, effectively damming a nearby river and causing the catastrophic flooding that overwhelmed Sutton's residence. "A bunch of trees came down and blocked the entrance to the creek, it would have been about a metre deep over the road, it washed a car away," McPherson recounted.
Residents' Narrow Escapes from Disaster
Other residents faced perilous situations as the storm intensified. CJ Koshar told the New Zealand Herald he was asleep when a loud rumbling noise from the roof woke him. "Suddenly, a few seconds later, I saw that the cracks are coming out of the wall and the whole wall came out," he said. Koshar attempted to hold up the collapsing wall but escaped when he realised his efforts were futile. Photographs inside his two-storey house in Brooklyn showed an entire wall caved in on his bedroom.
An 87-year-old woman recounted to the Post that she was awakened by her dog and had to scramble to the top of her wardrobe as waters inside her home rapidly rose. Social media images depicted cars battered and overturned, with one vehicle perched on a fence after floating away in the floodwaters.
Emergency Response and Ongoing Impacts
Fire and emergency services responded to over 150 calls for assistance, with various streets in the city evacuated. Photographs showed workers clearing landslides on roads that wind through Wellington's hilly urban terrain. During the peak of the weekend's rain, the Mt Victoria tunnel, a key arterial link, was closed due to safety concerns.
Although weather warnings have been downgraded, a state of emergency remains in effect for the Wellington region as cleanup efforts continue. The event underscores the vulnerability of the city to extreme weather events and the urgent need for robust disaster preparedness measures.
