Thousands evacuated from their homes as “once in 500 year” floods hit New Zealand

The tail end of Cyclone Debbie has had a devastating effect on New Zealand’s North Island.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and a state of emergency has been declared in several regions of New Zealand’s North Island following extreme weather brought about by the tail end of Cyclone Debbie. According to the Guardian, after two days of heavy rain and gale force winds, a number of rivers on the North Island burst their banks, causing severe flooding in a number of areas. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the Bay of Plenty, while the town of Edgecumbe on the east coast of the North Island has been affected by floods of up to two metres high after the Rangitaiki river burst its banks on Thursday morning. Speaking to Radio New Zealand, Tony Bonne, mayor of the town of Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty region, described the floods as a “once in 500 year” event. "There is danger, with the huge volumes of water coming down the river, we have grave concerns for the town of Edgecumbe,” Bonne said.

"This has all happened really quickly ... there is a wall of water going through Edgecumbe at the moment."

The adverse weather conditions have led to landslides, road closures and power outages throughout the North Island and a number of flights out of Wellington and Auckland have been affected as a result. Local authorities in the North Island have been assisted in their efforts to stem the effects of the flooding by the New Zealand Defence Force and Red Cross. Cyclone Debbie is the strongest tropical cyclone in the Australian region in the last two years and caused significant damage in parts of Queensland late last month.