My condolences to the families affected by this tragedy. Severe weather events like flooding and landslides can be dangerous and it’s important for people to stay informed and follow advice from local authorities.
A state of emergency is still in place for most of New Zealand’s north island, including the city of Auckland, where thousands of homes and businesses don’t have power and hundreds don’t have water.
As heavy rain keeps falling on New Zealand’s biggest city, it has caused flash flooding and landslides, which have killed four people.
Since last Friday, a lot of the north island, including Auckland, has seen record rainfall. Auckland is still in a state of emergency because more bad weather is expected in the coming days.
Homes have been flooded, roads have been closed, and a train has gone off the tracks because of the flooding.
The government says that thousands of homes and businesses still don’t have power, and hundreds don’t have a reliable source of water.
Rachel Kelleher, who is in charge of emergency management for the city of Auckland, said, “We know there could be more bad weather tonight.”
The Deputy Prime Minister of the New Zealand government, Carmel Sepuloni, was quoted as saying, “The worst part is that people have died.”
The police say that they found one man’s body in a flooded culvert and another man’s body in a flooded parking lot.
They said that fire and rescue crews found a third body after a landslide caused a house in the city of Auckland’s Remuera district to fall down.
After being swept away by floodwaters, another person whose whereabouts were unknown until recently was found to have died as a result of their ordeal.
After Jacinda Ardern said she was stepping down as prime minister, Chris Hipkins, who has been in charge for just over a week, took a military plane to Auckland and then a helicopter to check on the damage.
Mr. Hipkins, who went around to see the damage caused by the flooding, said, “Our main goal is to make sure that Aucklanders are safe, have a place to live, and can get the important services they need.”
He went on to say, “This is something that has never happened to me in my lifetime.”
After Auckland Airport had to temporarily shut down for a week, Air New Zealand has finally started flying both international and domestic flights into and out of the city again.
“What we mean by climate change is this.”
Climate change is making it rain harder and more often in New Zealand. The country’s environment minister, James Shaw, said this in a tweet to show support for people whose lives have been turned upside down by flooding.
He wrote that this is because of changes in the weather.
“It is our responsibility as a whole to make sure that the New Zealand our children inherit is safe and fit for people to live in,”
Experts say that Friday was the wettest day ever recorded in Auckland. More rain fell in one day than normally falls in a whole summer.
There were places where it rained more than six inches in just three hours.
Sir Elton John had to cancel his concert on Friday night just minutes before it was supposed to start because of bad weather.
Sir Elton was also supposed to perform at the Mt. Smart Stadium in Auckland on Saturday night, but that show was also canceled.
People have said that the emergency declaration came too late.
Wayne Brown, the mayor of Auckland, has responded to complaints that his office didn’t make it clear how serious the situation was and that it didn’t declare a state of emergency until about 9:30 p.m. on Friday. Brown has explained why he made this choice.
He said that experts were consulted before the decision to declare a state of emergency.