'Almighty crash' before bach collapses in landslide at Auckland's Manukau Heads
Wednesday, 1 February 2023
A bach has collapsed in a landslide at Orua Bay Beach in the rural Auckland township of Manukau Heads.
One person, who was trapped inside, has been rescued and taken to hospital.
Three people are injured – two seriously and a third person has minor injuries.
Some roads to the township, which is about 100km by road from Auckland CBD, are blocked by slips from the recent torrential rain.
Emergency services are at the property, with others arrived by hovercraft.
Three people have been injured after the bach they were inside collapsed at Orua Bay Beach in the rural Auckland township of Manukau Heads when it was hit by a landslide.
Urban Search and Rescue worked to remove one person still trapped inside. The person was rescued from the bach just after 2pm.
Dave Palmer, who owns a bach a few properties down, said he heard an “almighty crash” and rushed onto the beach shortly before midday.
“I heard another noise and saw this little orange car come flying off the bridge – then the house came off behind it.”
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Palmer saw a man dragging someone onto the beach, followed by a distraught woman.
“She told us her elderly mother was still inside, so we rushed in to get her. We got her out, but her legs had been crushed.”
Palmer said the family had only arrived in the area for a holiday from Australia yesterday. His house was now behind police tape and was being considered unsafe for now.
“Slips are quite common here, but not usually a whole house.”
The owner of the bach, Babu Mohamed Ali, said he was “very shocked” to learn it had collapsed.
He had been going to the property for around 10 years with his family, he said.
Manukau Heads is a rural township on a peninsula in south Auckland, about 100km from the central city. Some roads into the peninsula are blocked due to slips from flooding overnight.
Firefighters were ferried across the Manukau Harbour aboard the Auckland Airport Emergency Service's hovercraft to help them access the remote beach.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager Josh Pennefather said the alarm was raised shortly after midday on Wednesday.
One person in a serious condition was taken to Auckland Hospital by a helicopter and one patient in a minor condition is being taken Middlemore Hospital by an ambulance, a St John spokesperson said.
The person who was trapped has been airlifted to Middlemore Hospital in a serious condition.
Dozens of firefighters and police officers were at Orua Bay on Wednesday afternoon.
A group of locals said most of the houses in the area were baches.
“The house involved gets booked out like an Airbnb. We don’t know the people involved but they arrived just yesterday from Australia.”
One woman said it was lucky the tide hadn’t been in when the land slip happened as the water goes right up against the bank.
“It would’ve made the rescue very difficult. We’re safe here, but some of the houses on the cliff side have been evacuated we’ve been told.”
The incident comes after Auckland was hammered by rain on Tuesday night and into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Suburbs were inundated and motorways were flooded during the deluge, which came on the heels of Friday’s massive downpour.
The first one resident knew about the incident was when they heard saw two helicopters circling in the area.
“Living near the Manukau Harbour, whenever you see helicopters you know something bad has happened,” they said.
When they went down to have a look they could see fire and emergency personnel and St John personnel at the site of the collapse.
“For us, this isn’t just a one-off weather event – flooding has been ongoing for three years.
“We’ve been asking the council to help us and warning them that something bad will happen without a proper [waste]water system,” they said.
On Friday and again on Wednesday morning, water levels reached over one metre in the area, they said.
“I’m exhausted.”
While they were on the phone to Stuff, a slip also occurred on the resident's property.