₦airaland Forum

Hundreds of people have been evacuated and many more face being forced to abandon their homes in New Zealand’s Canterbury region as heavy rains raise water levels and cause widespread flooding.
A state of emergency was declared for the entire Canterbury region and at least 300 homes were evacuated overnight as water levels rose in rivers across the region in a “one-in-100-year deluge”, local media reports said on Monday.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ9ZijkCVYI

Several highways, schools and offices were closed and New Zealand’s Defence Forces deployed helicopters to rescue some people stranded in floods in the Ashburton area. Ashburton’s mayor, Neil Brown, said “half of Ashburton” would need to be evacuated if the river’s levees broke but there was “still quite a bit of capacity” in the river.
“We need it to stop raining to let those rivers drop,” said Brown, according to the New Zealand Herald.

The military helped evacuate more than 50 people including several overnight in an NH-90 military helicopter.
One man was clinging to a tree near the town of Darfield when he jumped into flood waters and tried to swim to safety but was swept away, the military said.

Helicopter crews scoured the water for 30 minutes before finding the man and plucking him to safety. The military helicopter also rescued an elderly couple from the roof of their car.
Another man was rescued by a civilian helicopter pilot on Sunday after he was swept from his farm as he tried to move his stock to safety.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaTLyzeheBY

Paul Adams told the news website Stuff he thought he had been hit by a wall of water that he hadn’t seen coming. He was swept down the raging Ashburton river before managing to drag himself on to a fence and then into a tree. Another farmer spotted his headlamp and organised a rescue mission.

Manq:
Bad news everywhere

Flooding helps spread organic material, nutrients, and sediments which enrich floodplain soils. They also replenish water resources and trigger life processes such as bird breeding events, migration, and seed dispersal in flora and fauna adapted to these cycles, while good soil moisture can allow crops and pastures to be established.