Auckland, New Zealand’s largest underwater city
from BZ / dpa
After heavy rains in the middle of New Zealand’s summer, large parts of the largest city, Auckland, are flooded.
Civil defense has asked citizens of New Zealand’s North Island capital of 1.6 million people to get to safety.
In some areas of the city, 80 percent of the rain measured all summer fell within 15 hours, the National Research Institute NIWA said. The suburbs of Comio and Albany were hit hard.
“It is likely that parts of Auckland will experience as much rain in one day as it would the entire summer,” Niwa wrote on Twitter. Firefighters used kayaks and jet skis to rescue people from their homes. A planned Elton John concert at Mount Smart Stadium, which 40,000 fans wanted to attend, has been canceled for security reasons.
Many roads have been closed. There were power outages in parts of Auckland. The airport buildings were also flooded.
Green politician Gulriz Kahraman tweeted that the scenes unfolding in the flooded areas were “terrifying” and emphasized: “This is what we will see again and again around the world due to the climate crisis until we see it in politics and take seriously our actions.”
“The rain has to stop, that’s the main problem,” Mayor Wayne Brown told Radio New Zealand.
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