Perilous
Times and Climate Change
New Zealand: Vicious storms, Torrential rains cause flash
floods
From correspondents in Wellington
AAP
January 01, 2012 1:40PM
TWO people who ignored flood warnings have had to scramble for
safety from a partially submerged car on New Zealand's North
Island.
The car was stuck in the Waimana River in the Bay of Plenty today.
The pair were airlifted to a local hospital, police said.
Roads in the area are closed due to flooding, and water has
flooded outl homes in the small town of Waimana.
A woman and three children were cut off in a home in the town,
Fairfax Media reported.
Rivers in the eastern Bay of Plenty were still rising today and
flooding was expected to be severe at high tide.
Torrential rain over the North Island yesterday forced the
cancellation of New Year's Eve entertainments in Wellington, but
celebrations went ahead in other centres.
Mud was a problem at an outdoor music festival in the Coromandel
Peninsula.
A hose was hauled into the emergency department of Thames Hospital
to sluice down mud-covered patients.
"We've got to hose them down before we can treat them for whatever
ailment they have got," Waikato District Health Board
communications director Mary Anne Gill told Radio New Zealand.