Woman's body found washed up in West Coast valley after flooding

Wednesday, 27 March 2019

Flood water surges down the Fox River on the West Coast after extreme weather, in March 2019.

The body of a woman has been found washed up on the banks of a flooded West Coast river.

She was Gloria Reardon-Hirst, 66, of Arahura Valley, police confirmed on Wednesday afternoon.

She was killed after being swept away in surging floodwaters in the Arahura Valley. Her body was recovered about 9.20am north of Hokitika.

The Waiho Bridge in Franz Josef was taken out by torrential flood waters on Tuesday.

Senior Sergeant Peter Payne said an initial scene investigation suggested Reardon-Hirst got out of her car and tried to cross the floodwaters on foot, before being swept away along the strong-flowing current of the surface flooding on Arahura Valley Rd.

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The investigation was ongoing and the death would be referred to the coroner, he said.

Blue Spur Farmstay co-owner Garth Bloomfield said Reardon-Hirst's death was 'very raw' and a 'shock' for the tight-knit Arahura Valley community.

'It's a bit of a shock, we thought we got off scot-free but we didn't.

'It's horrible losing one of our own to a storm event. It's a sobering thought [because] that could've been any one of us.'

He said Reardon-Hirst, who lived 'just down the road and around the corner', was a sociable neighbour who always gave him a smile and a wave when passing.

A state of emergency was declared for the Westland district on Tuesday evening after a day of torrential rain.

Hours of battering from torrential flood waters carrying large amounts of rock and material downstream impacted the Waiho Bridge's support piers, destroying the bridge, which spans the river near Franz Josef on State Highway 6.

The state of emergency remained in place on Wednesday and Civil Defence Minister Kris Faafoi visited various places in Westland throughout the day.

Faafoi and the Minister of Agriculture Damien O'Connor posted a video to Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, saying work had begun on replacing the Waiho Bridge.

'The plan is to replace it completely, it's a Bailey bridge and it is setup under a construction system, which allows them to build really quickly.

'I think two weeks and they'll have that bridge across there, as long as the river drops back and they can get in and do the work so we're hoping for no more weather events,' O'Connor said.

Work has already begun on the replacement bridge over the Waiho River at Franz pic.twitter.com/80g8XzDuCg

— Damien O'Connor (@DamienOConnorMP) March 27, 2019

He said it was crucial the bridge was back up and running to allow access for the more than one million people that use the road each year to go between the West Coast and Queenstown.

'It's vital they have some way of access otherwise the West Coast misses out completely and they go straight round to Canterbury so we need this bridge back up and running as quickly as possible,' he said.

Reardon-Hirst's family declined to comment on Wednesday evening.