Her police New Zealand suspended until the morning (local time) the search for the location high school student who is missing after being washed away by water in a cave north of Auckland in the North Island today, as torrential rains and storms cause flash floods and landslides in this country’s largest city, which the authorities declared a state of emergency.
Police officer Tony Hill said a student was missing in Abbey Caves, near Whangarei, after a group of 15 high school students and two adults got into a “difficult situation”. The remaining 16 have been found, according to him.
Local media reported that it was about group of high school students Whangarei Boys’, which told parents the school would be closing earlier today.
The rescue crews clarified that the student is missing after being swept away by the waters into the cave during a school trip. Abbey Caves is located about five kilometers from the city of Whangarei and includes three caves that are “prone to flash flooding”, according to the council’s website.
Police rescue teams suspended their operations at 17:00 local time (08:00 Greek time) today after a full-day search in the area, which faced heavy rain throughout the day. Searches will resume after dawn in the cordoned off area.
“Our thoughts are with the friends and family of the missing student,” Hill said in a statement. “The school receives support from the Trauma Response Team of the Ministry of Education,” he notes.
Torrential rains are wreaking havoc across this region, where some major arterial roads have been closed.
State of emergency in Auckland
More generally in Oakland, New Zealand’s largest city, schools in affected areas were evacuated and closed. Streets and parks have been flooded, a state of emergency has been declared locally and two shelters have been opened by civil protection services.
The floods caused by iheavy rains have disrupted transport and suspended train services, while authorities have asked people to avoid non-essential travel for fear of triggering landslides.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected to continue into the evening, possibly into midnight local time, before the weather phenomenon move to the southeast.
Auckland experienced severe flooding in January which killed 4 people, then in February Cyclone Gabriel caused widespread damage across much of the North Island and killed at least 11 people.
The Ministry of Finance estimates the cost of these weather phenomena to be between 9 and 14.5 billion New Zealand dollars (5.19 – 8.37 billion euros).
Source: News Beast
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