Earthquakes and floods kill two in NZ

Floods and earthquakes that killed two people over the weekend kept hundreds of New Zealanders from their homes today, and dairy farmers on the North Island asked for urgent help moving thousands of cows from swamped pastures.

About 1,500 people remained evacuated from their houses after floodwaters inundated towns and thousands of acres of nearby farmland in the eastern Bay of Plenty region.

Two women died as a result of the flooding and more than 30 earthquakes that shook the area in the 18 hours to midday today (1am Irish time), police said.

The biggest quake, with a magnitude of 5.4, was blamed for felling a tree that killed a woman passenger in a car. The body of a second woman, killed when a massive landslide crashed into her house and tore it from its foundations, was recovered today.

Officials said at least five houses were “uninhabitable” after the swarm of quakes shifted them from foundations and toppled concrete walls. At least four others had been wrecked by landslides.

Civil Defence workers maintained a state of emergency across the region as floodwaters up to three feet deep poured through the streets of several rural towns including Opotiki, Edgecumbe and Whakatane.

Prime Minister Helen Clark visited flood-stricken residents in evacuation shelters and noted that New Zealand was dealing with its second major flood in a few months.

“It tells us that our climate is becoming much more erratic. It is most unusual to get events of this scale within a few months of each other,” she said.

Lobby group Federated Farmers said hundreds of dairy farms were badly affected by the floodwaters.

Spokeswoman Catherine Bull said farmers were trying desperately to move herds to higher ground.

“The first priority is to get the stock to safety,” she said, adding that hundreds of newly born calves were in need of urgent feeding.

Environment Bay of Plenty spokeswoman Ana Cotter said extensive flooding meant that probably half the Rangitaiki plains west of Whakatane remained underwater - but the worst of the danger was over with the Rangitaiki River passing its flood peak.

As engineers tried to clear farmlands of water to limit damage to pasture and orchards, water supplies to towns were cut off by the flooding.

“We’ve got some quite critical drinking water issues around the district,” Whakatane District Council spokeswoman Diane Turner said.