A state of emergency's been declared in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, after three people died in floods.
A state of emergency has been declared for Auckland following this evening’s extreme flood event. Please follow Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information and safety advice.
Stay safe. Don’t take any chances. Kia kaha, Tamaki Makaurau.
— National Emergency Management Agency (@NZcivildefence) January 27, 2023
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says the severe weather is 'unprecedented' with Auckland badly hit by heavy rain and thunderstorms.
Friday was the city's wettest day on record with 240mm of rainfall - which is equal to an entire summer's worth of rain.
Roads and airports have been affected - with no international flights operating at Auckland today (Saturday) - and no international arrivals until 7am local time on Sunday.
New Zealand Green Party MP, Ricardo Menendez March says they are not used to this kind of weather but climate change is inevitably making these sort of events more frequent.
He added " When it started raining, we didn't expect our neighbourhoods to get so flooded but in the matter of an hour, my local area was already flooded and the water was coming all the way almost to our shoulders so we had to make a prompt evacuation"
Video footage of the floods have been circulating online.
Auckland bus way swamped pic.twitter.com/9XIcsm2Lrz
— Adam (@CrazyIdeasNZ) January 27, 2023
Motorway southbound overflowing pic.twitter.com/9SK904iUo7
— Christo Montes (@MonteChristoNZ) January 27, 2023
A state of emergency has been declared in New Zealand after recording its wettest 24 hours on record, leading to sudden widespread flooding. #9News
MORE INFO: https://t.co/K5ZondO3YP pic.twitter.com/bI0fG8tmcI— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) January 27, 2023
