The body of a man who was swept away after severe flooding tore through his home in New Zealand’s capital has been found, police confirmed on Wednesday, as the city picked up the pieces after widespread damage.
Philip Sutton was looking after a property for his sister in Karori, in Wellington’s west, when a torrent of flood water smashed through it early on Monday.
Search and rescue teams had been scouring the area but were forced to pause operations when Tuesday brought further torrential rain.
In a media briefing, police said Sutton was found some distance from his car just after midday on Wednesday. There was a “substantial distance” between the car and where Sutton was found, they said.
“The family are aware that we have located Phillip, so as you can imagine they are now moving to that privacy space so they can manage what they need to manage,” Inspector Fleur de Bes said.
Speaking to RNZ, Insp Dean Silvester said the search in the semi-rural area had been challenging.
Flood debris was found in trees more than a metre off the ground, he said.
“So that gives some indication of the ferocity.”
Wellington was placed under a rare state of emergency on Monday after the city experienced rainfall totals that nearly tripled monthly averages. More than 70mm of rain fell in one hour in parts of southern Wellington – the highest on record for the city, Metservice said.
Residents woke to rivers rushing through their streets, cars flipped over and dragged out to sea, landslides and flooding. On Wednesday morning a dead cow was found washed up on a popular south coast beach.
Further showers were forecast for Wellington but all rain and wind warnings had been lifted on Wednesday. However, the state of emergency was still in place, Wellington city council said.
“Although conditions are improving, hazards are still present – particularly landslides, slips, flooding, debris, and unstable structures. These risks can occur suddenly, even after the rain has eased.”
Emergency services and response teams were working in affected areas, it said, and asked residents to “not self-deploy” to assist with the clean-up. That hasn’t stopped some community efforts – with groups out in the streets cleaning up debris and assisting people whose homes or businesses were damaged.
The Newtown Residents Association told RNZ locals had been pulling together to help residents of the local community and its neighbouring suburbs, Mount Cook and Berhampore, which faced widespread flooding.
“Wellington’s resilient, Newtown’s resilient, and we just check in on each other,” said Merio Marsters, its president.