Weather: Driver rescued after ute was dragged into river following heavy rain
Thursday, 16 July 2020
A man was found by firefighters sitting on the roof of his vehicle after it was dragged into a river by flood waters caused by heavy rain.
The white ute was submerged about 10 metres from the shore at Falls Rd, Warkworth, north of Auckland, on Thursday morning.
The driver had to pulled to safety by firefighters using a rope and a life jacket. He was given warm clothes, and was uninjured but shaken, Warkworth Volunteer Fire Brigade chief officer Devan Flewellyn said.
The incident comes after crews in the upper North Island were kept busy overnight with fallen trees, power lines and roofs lifting due to wild weather.
**READ MORE:
* Wild weather strikes as heavy rain, wind gusts hit upper North Island
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MetService issued heavy rain warnings for Northland, Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island for Wednesday and Thursday.
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The Warkworth area experienced bad weather overnight, Flewellyn said, and it appeared the driver of the submerged ute had attempted to cross a ford and had been swept into the river. A ford is a dip in the road where water from a river or stream crosses.
It appeared the driver didn’t realise how deeply the ford had flooded, Flewellyn said.
A police spokeswoman said officers were also called to the scene.
“The vehicle remains in the creek and is likely to be retrieved when flood waters recede,” she said. “In general, police advise motorists to be extra cautious in this wet and windy weather and drive to the conditions.”
On Thursday morning, Fire and Emergency shift manager Carren Larking said there were at least 30 weather-related call outs from 6.30pm to 11.30pm on Wednesday night, between Auckland and Kaeo in the Far North.
Larking said most incidents occurred between Warkworth and Kaeo and almost all of them involved trees coming down.
There were about four call-outs to fallen power lines and two flooding incidents. Firefighters were also called after a roof lifted, but Larking couldn’t provide a location.
“There were no injuries and no major damage,” Larking said.
A Vector spokesman said crews responded to a number of localised power outages overnight caused by strong winds, mainly in the north and east of the city.
“The majority of these were restored through the night. However, in some cases we needed to stand down until daylight for safety reasons,” the spokesman said.
At 9.15am, he said crews were starting to get power on for any customers still without it.
Strong winds also pummelled parts of Waikato.
Larking said firefighters responded to several call-outs in the Hauraki Plains for trees that had come down partially blocking a road in Netherton and Pōkeno, while power lines were arcing in Onewhero.
In Te Aroha, strong winds caused the roof of a home to start lifting. Matamata fire crews responded and helped secure the roof, Larking said.
She was hoping it wouldn’t be another busy day on Thursday, but “you never know with weather. It just does its own thing, and we’ll cope as it comes through.”
On Wednesday, MetService forecaster Sonja Farmer said 51mm of rain fell in Kerikeri in four hours in the afternoon – about a quarter of the area's total average rainfall for July.
At one northern Bay of Islands location, 23mm fell in just an hour. In to the southwest of the region, Kaikohe received a 30mm dumping between 3pm and 7pm.
Farmer said 128kmh winds were recorded at Tutukaka Harbour, northeast of Whangārei.
MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris said heavy rain would drift south on Thursday and Friday.
“Northland and Coromandel Peninsula are the two warning areas but there are regions under watch stretching into northern Gisborne,” Ferris said.
The Bay of Plenty and Kaimai Ranges were also expected to take a hit from heavy rain and gale force easterly winds on late Wednesday, and even until Friday morning.