Two people were killed and several others remained missing after intense rain triggered landslides and flooding across New Zealand’s North Island on January 22. The deaths occurred at a home in Welcome Bay, while a separate landslide tore through a holiday park at the base of Mount Maunganui.
Emergency workers recovered two bodies from the Welcome Bay property after the house was damaged early Thursday. Two other people escaped, according to The Independent. Police referred the deaths to a coroner and said they were supporting the victims’ relatives.
At Mount Maunganui’s Beachside Holiday Park, earth and debris crashed into campervans, tents and an amenities building. The site was evacuated as around 40 firefighters, urban search-and-rescue specialists, detection dogs and two excavators joined the operation. Searches were expected to continue through the night.
Missing count remained uncertain
Officials did not publish a confirmed number of people missing from the campsite on the event date. Police believed the total was in single figures and said children were among those unaccounted for. Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell confirmed that at least one young girl was missing.
Establishing the number was complicated because some campers may have left without telling others. Authorities reviewed security-camera footage to identify who had been at the holiday park. Mitchell said officials had an approximate count but would wait for firmer information before announcing it.
First responders initially heard voices from beneath the slide, Fire and Emergency commander William Pike said. Crews later detected no further signs of life and temporarily withdrew because the unstable slope could move again. That absence of signs did not constitute a formal declaration about the fate of those missing, and rescue work continued in hazardous conditions.
Witnesses described the hillside giving way within seconds. One tourist near the hot pools said a caravan crashed into a swimming pool as people ran from the area. The supplied reports describe the speed and scale of the collapse but do not establish its precise geotechnical cause beyond the exceptional rainfall and saturated ground.
Record rain and widespread disruption
Tauranga recorded its wettest day since observations began in 1910, the BBC reported. Its cited measurement was 274 millimetres in 24 hours—about three months of rain. The Independent gave a compatible but differently framed figure of about 295mm over slightly more than 30 hours.
Local emergencies were declared across several North Island regions. Fire and Emergency New Zealand responded to more than 230 weather-related calls from Tuesday, including rescues from rooftops and flooded homes. At least 8,000 households remained without electricity on Thursday, down from 16,000 earlier, and dozens of roads were closed.
Farther north, police searched for a 47-year-old man swept away with his vehicle while trying to cross a river near Warkworth on Wednesday. A landslide at Helena Bay also blocked a road with trees, earth and a large boulder, cutting off hundreds of residents.
Forecasters warned of additional wind and showers over already saturated areas, raising the possibility of more flooding and slope failures. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the preceding 48 hours had claimed lives and damaged livelihoods, and said the government would support affected communities.
Scientists quoted by The Independent said increasingly intense rainfall was consistent with expectations for a warmer atmosphere that can hold more moisture. The supplied evidence does not contain an event-specific attribution study. On January 22, the immediate focus remained the dangerous search at Mount Maunganui, support for the families of those killed at Welcome Bay and assistance to communities isolated by floods and landslides.
