A rural Pāpāmoa resident has described “climbing through the mud” to find his neighbour’s house had been flattened by a landslide that has left two people missing.
Lindsay Putt told the Bay of Plenty Times that no one was at home when a landslide hit his neighbour’s house in Welcome Bay Rd early this morning.
He understood the house next to his neighbour’s was the one from which the two people were missing.
It is one of a series of life-threatening landslides that hit Tauranga and the surrounding Western Bay of Plenty district after the wettest 24 hours of rain on record.
People are missing in Mount Maunganui after a slip from Mauao went through the campground and hot pools at the base of the mountain this morning.
Slips also hit houses in Ōmokoroa and Bellevue.
Police have said they were notified at 4.15am that a slip had extensively damaged a house on Welcome Bay Rd.
Two people were unaccounted for, another person was seriously injured, and “a number of homes” were evacuated.
Police and firefighters are working to locate the missing people.
Welcome Bay Rd remains closed between Waitao Rd and Kairua Rd.
Hato Hone St John was notified at 4.10am and sent three ambulances and an operations manager.
“Our ambulance crews treated two patients in a moderate condition and assessed three people in a minor condition at the scene.”
No one needed hospital treatment, but the people the crews treated may have taken themselves to hospital, St John said.
Putt, his partner Zoe Beck and their 3-year-old daughter had to leave their Welcome Bay Rd home in darkness.
Before leaving, Putt said he “went to have a look around” with his headtorch.
“I was climbing through the mud about up to my thighs and just having a search around all the orchards ... ”
He went to a neighbour’s home, which he knew was unoccupied because it was being renovated.
“I couldn’t even get anywhere near the house because the orchards were flattened, so I climbed up on top of the kiwifruit orchard and had a look around, and the house is just flat.”
Beck, who is 34 weeks pregnant, said she had been awake in the early hours of the morning.
Between 3am and 4am, she and Putt went outside and thought they heard thunder.
“Then we sort of heard all this water and rock moving down the hill as it got closer towards us, and then once the water hit the road, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s a landslide.’
“We were just hoping it wasn’t going to hit our house because we couldn’t see because it’s dark. We’re up on a kiwifruit orchard, so there’s no streetlights or anything, so you can’t see anything until it’s basically right there.”
She said emergency services were already en route. As they drove past with flashing lights, she could see there was “so much water” as well as rocks and other debris on the road.
It was “super scary”.
“The police came down and basically said, ‘You guys need to go.’”
They packed clothes and bottled water. They grabbed their cat and let their chickens out of the coop.
“We ... unfortunately couldn’t bring them with us so ... hopefully they can find somewhere safe to go.”
Beck said they went to Putt’s workplace. She was unsure when they could return home and planned to stay at her mother’s house in Pyes Pā if they could not go home tonight.
She said their home had not been damaged, but there was “a lot of flooding around”.
“The garden’s pretty much gone and washed away.”
She hoped the house would still be okay when they returned.
Today was her 26th birthday.
“We were going to do something for the long weekend and have some friends over for the barbecue, but I think we might be on clean-up duty at the neighbour’s house ... ”
She said Putt gave her a birthday present before they evacuated, which was a fishing rod.
Welcome Bay residents Joy Dickie and Gordon Henderson said they were “evicted” at 5.20am by the police.
“We had to go to Te Puke,” Dickie told the Bay of Plenty Times. She said it was upsetting.
“I’m already sick, so it was the last thing I needed to be woken up by the police, but I was relieved it was none of our three adult children because police knocking on your door is scary.”
She said they don’t know what was happening at their home because they were not allowed to go there.
“It was dark when we left. We had to go on a 4x4 to get out.”
They were “devastated” for the family who still had loved ones missing in Welcome Bay.
A state of emergency was declared in Bay of Plenty yesterday after MetService issued a red warning for heavy rain through to this morning.
Tauranga had steady rain throughout Wednesday but was pummelled overnight by strong winds and heavy downpours.
In the 12 hours until 6am today, Tauranga recorded 198mm of rain.
MetService meteorologist Mmthapelo Makgabutlane said that was two and a half months’ worth of rain.
From 3am to 4am, 25mm fell. In the 24 hours to 9am, 274mm of rain fell in Tauranga, making it the wettest day on record.
“The records date back to 1910,” Makgabutlane said.
The heavy rain warning said dangerous river conditions, significant flooding and slips could put lives at risk, and conditions could disrupt travel and isolate communities.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.