Topline
At least three people are dead and one missing after record flooding in Auckland, New Zealand, triggering landslides and widespread damage in the country’s largest city, where a heavy rain watch is still in effect, with more rain expected.
Flooding in Auckland has killed at least three people.
Key Facts
Local officials in Auckland on Saturday confirmed a third death in a landslide triggered by the historic flooding—after more than a summer’s worth of rain fell in just a single day, making it the wettest single day on record in multiple spots in the city, according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.
Two other people had been found dead Friday night, including one man in a flooded culvert in the city’s Wairau Valley, while first responders are searching for a man who was reportedly swept away in the flood in the village of Onewhero, just south of Auckland, late Friday night.
Surprising Fact
Auckland received the equivalent of the average amount of January rainfall in just one hour Friday night, according to the New Zealand Meteorological Service. The rainfall also came as a surprise during what is typically a dry part of the year. New Zealand’s North Island averages roughly 2.8 inches, according to the Meteorological Service.
Key Background
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown issued a state of emergency in the country’s capital Friday night lasting for seven days, the New Zealand Herald reported. The country’s Meteorological Service has also issued a severe thunderstorm watch around Auckland through Sunday morning, with more intense rainfall expected, including isolated downpours of more than an inch and a half of rainfall per hour. Forecasters warn more flash flooding and river flooding is likely.
Tangent
The record flooding in New Zealand comes less than a month after a series of storms killed at least 19 people in California, unleashing widespread flooding and landslides, and damaging piers and homes, as repeated bands of torrential rain battered the state one after another in what meteorologists have called a “relentless parade of cyclones.”
Further Reading
Record rainfall hits New Zealand’s largest city. See what it did to the airport (CNN)
3 dead, 1 missing as rain pounds New Zealand’s largest city (Associated Press)
3 dead, state of emergency in New Zealand’s largest city after record rainfall (CBC)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/01/28/a-summers-worth-of-rain-in-1-day-3-dead-amid-new-zealand-floods-record-rainfall/