Hundreds evacuated as storms lash NZ

Flood waters rose and hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes after storms lashed central New Zealand today. Rescuers found no trace of two men missing at sea and presumed drowned, police said.

Winds gusting up to 100 mph felled hundreds of trees, tore roofs from houses, and blocked roads in southern North Island. Weather forecasters said the winds were easing, but more heavy rain was expected.

Helicopters were used to pluck at least seven families from rooftops in the Manawatu farm region north of the capital, Wellington, as floodwaters surged through their homes.

On the west coast, rising rivers and a looming high tide at the seaside settlement of Tangimoana caused civil defence staff and army troops to evacuate more than 250 people.

At Lower Hutt city, nine miles north of Wellington, more than 150 people were evacuated from a campground as floodwaters flowed through parked cars.

The severe late summer storm disrupted road, sea, air and commuter rail travel in southern North Island throughout most of the day.

It cut electricity to thousands of homes in Wellington and the surrounding farm regions of Wairarapa, Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay, and in the northern city of Auckland.

Helicopters and fishing boats searched fruitlessly for a man missing in the Marlborough Sounds at the top of South Island after a fishing boat sank in raging seas.

Three crewmen were rescued from a lifeboat, but a fourth was washed away on a small rubber rowing boat. Searchers in helicopters later found the empty rowboat.

In Wellington, Harbour police and searchers abandoned their hunt today for a missing fisherman who went out alone in a rowing boat without a life jacket in high winds late on Saturday night.

Police in Auckland said a woman was seriously hurt when she was pinned in her bed by a tree that was blown through her roof.