Climate Change Triggers Heavy Rainfall & Floods In North Island, New Zealand Area
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2023 North Island floods of New Zealand, Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_North_Island_floods#/media/File:NZ_Territorial_Authorities_North_Island.png (Attribution: Ulanwp, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
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Heavy rainfall continued to batter New Zealand’s north island, causing landslides, flash floods, and knocking out roads, with the death toll rising to four after a person who had been missing was confirmed dead. Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city of 1.6 million people, remained under a state of emergency. More details may be found in the excerpt from wikipedia, in italics, below:
Beginning on Friday, 27 January 2023, regions across the upper North Island of New Zealand have been experiencing widespread catastrophic floods caused by heavy rainfall, with Auckland being the most significantly affected.[3]
Severe flash flooding occurred across Auckland from around 5:00 pm on 27 January local time, after heavy rain in the afternoon.[4] Flooding was widespread across the city, with West Auckland and North Shore being the worst affected areas. NIWA reported that an entire summer’s worth of rain fell within one day in what it described as a 1-in-200-year event.[5][6] The event is considered to be the worst floods in Auckland’s modern history.[7]
Some flooding also occurred in the Northland region on 27 January.[8] On 28 and 29 January the rain spread south, causing widespread flooding in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions,[1] with some also in the Gisborne region.[8] After lighter rain on 30 and 31 January, areas of Auckland flooded for a second time on the morning of 1 February after more heavy downpours.[9]
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson stated that the event was New Zealand’s costliest non-earthquake event ever.[9]
Impact
The flooding in Auckland on 27 January affected 25 suburbs in the city, closed major motorways, and left 6,000 to 8,000 homes in need of damage assessment.[1][31] Multiple slips threatened or destroyed buildings across the city, including a Manukau Coastguard building in French Bay.[32] On 28 January shortly before midnight, a landslide in Tauranga destroyed a house.[1]
Emergency services in Auckland responded to 719 weather incidents, answered 2,242 emergency calls, and made 126 rescues on Friday and Saturday morning.[33] A total of 811 water damaged cars had to be manually removed from roads, while 20 water damaged buses were removed from service.[9] Mayor of Auckland Wayne Brown stated that over 200 lifts were reported to not be working across the city after the floods, potentially isolating elderly residents at the top of apartment buildings, but Age Concern Auckland CEO Kevin Lamb stated that they had not had any calls about elderly people experiencing difficulties because of lift outages.[34]
The New Zealand Insurance Council estimated that the event could result in the highest number of weather related insurance claims on record, with insurance companies predicting this could be the costliest weather event in New Zealand ever.[35][36] AA Insurance predicted that the event could be their second costliest ever, behind only the Canterbury earthquakes.[37] It is estimated that the total insurance cost from the event could hit $1 billion NZD.[2] The previous costliest weather event in New Zealand history was a hailstorm in Timaru in 2019 that caused $170 million NZD of insurance damage.[38]
Deaths and evacuations
Four people died on 27 January; two in Wairau Valley on the North Shore, one in Remuera, and one in the Waikato town of Onewhero,[7][8][1] with thousands forced to evacuate their homes.[39] Two children were reported missing in Auckland during the night of Saturday 28 January, and were later found with a woman.[40]
It was expected that hundreds of pets and livestock would need medical care after the Auckland floods. Countless number of animals were lost and died in the floods.[41]
On Saturday 28 January, severe flooding in the Waitomo District of the Waikato region resulted in many evacuations, particularly around the town of Te Kūiti.[8]
More people had to be evacuated during a second flooding event in Auckland on Wednesday 1 February.[9]
More heavy rainfall has brought havoc to the New Zealand city of Auckland, downing trees, flooding homes and closing major roads. Weather watchers said more than a month of rain had fallen in 24 hours, affecting roads and rail, as the region reels from deadly floods last week. Four people were killed and thousands of homes were damaged by the heavy downpours on Friday. Residents in vulnerable areas had been told to prepare to evacuate if needed, in the video published on Feb 1, 2023, by BBC News, as “Flood-hit Auckland, New Zealand suffers more heavy rain – BBC News“, below:
The nation’s weather forecaster, MetService, warned of more severe weather for the north island, in the video published on Jan 30, 2023, by MIRROR NOW, as “New Zealand Flood LIVE | Death Toll Rises As Auckland Hit With Heavy Rain & Landslides“, below:
More torrential rain Wednesday morning brought more flooding to Auckland residents, with many saying they have had enough and want the Council to take accountability, in the video published on Jan 31, 2023, by nzherald.co.nz, as “Auckland residents living in fear of next flood | nzherald.co.nz“, below:
New Zealand’s largest city Auckland has declared a state of emergency after torrential rain prompted widespread flooding and evacuations. The downpour in Auckland on Friday shifted houses, stalled traffic and cut power to homes and businesses – with an Elton John concert, expected to be attended by 40,000 fans, cancelled minutes before it was due to start. The New Zealand Herald reported that a body had been found in Wairau Valley on Auckland’s north shore, in the video published on Jan 27, 2023, by BBC News, as “Auckland, New Zealand declares emergency after torrential rain – BBC News“, below:
Emergency Services are struggling to keep up with rescues in West Auckland as relentless rain sees people trapped on roofs, in cars, and many evacuated. Zane Small begins the coverage, in the video published on Jan 27, 2023, by Newshub, as “Wild weather sees Aucklanders trapped on roofs as emergency services struggle with rescues | Newshub“, below:
At least three people have died and a fourth person is missing due to heavy flooding in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency, in the video published on Jan 28, 2023, by ABC News (Australia), as “Auckland airport flooded as torrential rain hits New Zealand’s largest city |ABC News“, below:
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