Rescue efforts continue in Mount Maunganui for the people who remain unaccounted for after a major landslide came down on holidaymakers.
Several people, including youths, are feared buried after the “hillside gave way”, sending a slip through the campground and Mount Hot Pools at the base of the sacred mountain, Mauao.
Witnesses described fleeing from the pools as a caravan was tossed into a pool and scenes of campers “running and screaming” as others were trapped beneath rubble at the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park on Adams Ave.
People were heard screaming for help from inside a toilet block as would-be rescuers on the roof desperately tried to use tools to get through. The voices went quiet after about 15 minutes.
The slip about 9.30am was one of several on Mauao after the rain.
Yesterday afternoon, fears the mountain was still moving forced the evacuation of the surf club building, where displaced campers and families of the missing had been waiting for news.
On Welcome Bay Rd, locals have described being evacuated in darkness after a slip went through homes and orchards.
The life-threatening landslides and widespread flooding hit Tauranga and the surrounding Western Bay of Plenty District in its wettest 24 hours of rain on record overnight Wednesday.
Katikati was cut off for a time, and about 80 people were evacuated from Waihī and Waihī Beach, with the latter still cut off last night. An Ōmokoroa home was also among those damaged by slips.
Yesterday afternoon, Bay of Plenty Police District Commander, Superintendent Tim Anderson said concurrent rescue operations were running in Mount Maunganui and Welcome Bay Rd.
Two people were later confirmed dead in Welcome Bay.
Anderson described the landslides as “one-in-100-years events”.
He urged the public to avoid Mount Maunganui to allow emergency services to work safely.
People from the campsite had been evacuated to the Mount Surf Club, but that too was later evacuated due to the risk of more slips.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand national commander Megan Stiffler said specialist Urban Search and Rescue (Usar) teams were “carefully removing layers of debris” assisted by heavy machinery.
“This is a complex and high-risk environment and our teams are working to achieve the best possible outcome while keeping everyone safe. The teams will be operating overnight until the search is complete.”
Mount Maunganui resident Alister McHardy said he was about 50m away on Adams Ave when he heard what sounded like “rolling thunder and cracking of trees”.
“I was putting my fishing rod back in the car and looked up and the whole hillside gave way and smashed through the shower block and over the top of caravans.
“There were people running and screaming and I saw people get bowled. There are people trapped.”
The slip had covered several tent sites and the corner of the hot pools.
He said one woman was running in front of the rolling dirt and then tried to get back to what he assumed was a loved one trapped under the slip.
“She was trying to get to someone.”
Camper Carly Motley said “a massive slip” had taken out a toilet block and a number of caravans.
“It’s all slid right down through the hot pools ... there’s been helicopters, surf lifesavers are over there helping, and they’re just trying to cut into the toilet block at the moment.”
Mark Tangney said he heard screaming when he rushed to help people trapped in a toilet block.
The Whakatāne man, who works in the area, said he was heading to the Mount for a hike when he saw people running from the campground.
“I was one of the first there. There were six or eight other guys there on the roof of the toilet block with tools just trying to take the roof off because we could hear people screaming ‘help us, help us, get us out of here’.
Tangney said they “went hard for about half an hour and after 15 minutes, the people that were trapped, we couldn’t hear them anymore”.
They “just kept going” but after about 30 minutes, the police told them to get off and they were “called off the rescue” as it “was too dangerous”.
Tangney said it looked like the mud had pushed about six caravans and the toilet block itself was completely twisted and turned around, probably about 20m from where it was.
Canadian tourist Dion Siluch said he was having a massage at the hot pools when “the whole room began to violently shake”.
He said it was very loud, but he and the masseuse had “no idea what was going on”, so they continued the massage for about 10 minutes until someone banged on the door.
“I looked outside the window and there was a caravan in the Mount pool.”
He walked outside and began filming, capturing a campervan at the edge of a muddy pool.
“It’s a pretty big disaster.“
Bruce Cortesi and Olly Collier were also at the pools when the slip hit.
Collier we saw it first. He said to Cortesi, “look how the trees are moving”.
Cortesi looked up and said: “Run, run, get out, everyone.”
“When we saw the caravan coming through it was just like ‘go’, and it just kept coming.
Some people escaping the pools had “dirt on their faces”.
While the landslide looked like it was moving slowly, it came down in “seconds”.
They thought if anyone had been in the children’s pool or the spa pools, they’d have been “gone”.
The pair estimated there may have been 20-25 people in the pools at the time.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell confirmed “young people” were among those unaccounted for in the landslide.
He said it was a “heartbreaking” situation for parents as they waited for news.
“Your loved ones, when you don’t know where they are and the stress and anxiety of waiting around.
”They get an enormous amount of support; everyone is trying to share that burden with them."
He said geo-scientists were concerned another part of the mountain may slip.
“They’re concerned about the surf club, so it’s a precautionary evacuation,” he said.
“We were there with all the families and we have moved them to different locations.”
He praised the first responders, saying they are doing “a fantastic job”.
“Over the past 24 hours, there have definitely been some heroic people, members of the public, first responders, police and firefighters.
A Fire and Emergency spokesman said initially people could be heard yelling out from the rubble.
A second slip threatening to come down meant rescuers had to stand down from the scene temporarily.
No voices had been heard since.
Asked if there had been any signs of life, the spokesman said the crew had detected signs of life when they started to look for people but this had changed in later hours.
It was still a rescue mission.
Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale said his thoughts and prayers were with the families affected by the slip.
Drysdale said some of those unaccounted for were believed to have checked out of the campsite without officially notifying managers.
He said there were hundreds of families at the campground when the hillside collapsed.
Tauranga had steady rain throughout Wednesday but was then pummelled overnight by strong winds and heavy downpours.
In the 12 hours until 6am Thursday, Tauranga recorded 198mm of rain.
MetService meteorologist Mmthapelo Makgabutlane said that was two-and-a-half months’ worth of rain.
The city received 25mm of rain between 3am and 4am.
In the 24 hours to 9am, 274mm of rain fell in Tauranga, making it the wettest day since records began in 1910, Makgabutlane said.