TOP STORY: Rescue squad searches flood-hit homes

Specialist Urban Search and Rescue squad members cut their way through the twisted roof of David and Corinna Greaves' home today and retrieved some of their prized possessions.
They burrowed through the crumpled mess of the kitchen, dining room and garage - and headed for the lounge and the mahogany cabinet containing precious family photographs.
It was the first major deployment for the two-year-old Auckland-based task force - the newest of three elite units trained by Americans to work in collapsed structures and confined spaces.
As the Bay of Plenty Times went to press, the squad was still working on the fallen and wrecked Landscape Rd house.
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) task force three leader Roy Breeze told Mr Greaves "we will go for broke on your place and see what we can do. We will try and get into the kids' rooms and grab some stuff."
At daylight today, the expert unit was on site and assessed the recovery job on the worst hit house in last week's flooding.
The Greaves' home was hit by three landslides and pushed 20m forward onto a block of nearby flats. Before the squad members went in, they braced the fallen remains to make the house more stable and Mr Greaves drew up a plan of what the house looked like inside.
"We don't see a high risk," said Mr Breeze but the squad couldn't get right through the house because the back of it was submerged in mud.
Geo-technical engineer Marianne O'Halloran was on hand to check for any movements while the squad members were in the house. If there was, she planned to blow her air horn and the squad members would quickly evacuate.
Later this morning, the recovery team was due to bring in a crane to lift Mr Greaves' 16ft Cresta Craft fishing boat and two kayaks from the mud on the side of the house. "I never thought I would see them again," Mr Greaves said.
"It's unbelievable. I appreciate what they are doing."
The New Zealand Urban Search and Rescue have sent two fully-laden task force trucks and a full-strength team of 33 to Tauranga - 21 from Auckland and 12 from its Palmerston North base.
The USAR squads will first concentrate on eight of the most badly damaged homes in Otumoetai and Welcome Bay, shoring them up and then entering them to retrieve personal items and furniture before the houses are demolished.
The homeowners are on site, if they want to be, telling the USAR specialists what items they want recovered.
In Tauranga, the USAR will work in four squads comprising five technicians and a paramedic. They are supported by a leader and communications, logistics and planning specialists.
Mr Breeze said: "We are trained to deal with multi-storey collapse but we don't know about soil.
The geo-techs are our ears as we go into the houses.
"I'm told that if there is any ground movement then it will move very fast. As a leader I have one golden rule: 'To take everyone home who I've brought'," said Mr Breeze, who is also the Hamilton Chief Fire Officer.
Over the next three days the squads - who operate at a fast clip - were hoping to enter all 17 category one houses, which were likely to be written off.
Mr Breeze said the crumpled house in Landscape Rd was the trickiest job.
"It's going to be challenging; it will be like pick-up sticks. We will use tunnelling methods until we get to the furniture.
"All the rest (of the houses) look pretty easy.
"We make an assessment on the best way to retrieve items and go in - people will be surprised how quickly we can do this," he said.
Mr Breeze said it was good time to start entering the damaged houses - "all the heavy rain has gone and there's no direct risk to life.
"The soil has started drying and there's less chance of it falling on us."