Resident Jane Loughnan said she woke to “water everywhere”.
Photo: Supplied
A woman on Wright Street in the Wellington suburb of Mount Cook saw half a dozen cars floating when she looked outside her window.
Jane Loughnan said she woke up around 4.30am, and saw “water everywhere”.
“There was water down the bottom of my path, which has never happened before.
“We’re really close to Prince of Wales Park, and a lot of debris had come down through the Pāpāwai Stream, and flooded sort of the lower end of our street.”
It comes as torrential rain in the region has caused flooding and landslips. Emergency vehicles are out around the city, with pictures showing large amounts of water flowing along main routes.
Loughnan said there was mud everywhere, and tow trucks had arrived – “trying to work out how they’re going to tow the cars away”.
She said all of her neighbours had been out, trying to move some of the mud “so we can actually sort of have half a foot path that people can get through”.
“So, yeah, just a little bit of a mess.”
Loughnan said her house was okay, but the house across the street and another on the corner had water come up to their front door.
She thought there had been “a little bit more damage” up on Salisbury Terrace, but had not made it up that far yet.
All of her neighbours were out with “hoses, and brooms, and shovels, and everything”.
“Lots of photos, and talking, and scratching of heads.”
Meanwhile, a resident on Wellington’s south coast says there is a car submerged in the river mouth where the stream flows onto the beach in Ōwhiro Bay.
She says she’s also spotted a fridge floating in floodwaters.
Photo: Tess O’Connor
Another resident, Jess Allen, said the flood damage was severe, with several houses inundated and cars washed out to sea.
She told RNZ that there was debris everywhere on Happy Valley Road, from the suburb of Brooklyn down to Ōwhiro Bay.
“I’m on the side of the road that’s not affected, but the side of the road where the stream goes down behind the houses – that stream came up very rapidly in the night, and families had to evacuate,” she said.
“Someone had to climb out their windows to get to the neighbour’s house.”
Allen said Ōwhiro Stream “had raged”.
She had also spotted the car on Ōwhiro Bay beach, and said there were three others “that are just missing”.
Ōwhiro Stream had broken bridges, and there were also fallen trees, alongside the debris, she said.
“I drove my electric car to work, but I really wish I’d had a four-wheel drive.”
MetService’s severe thunderstorm warning was lifted before 6am, as the heaviest downpours eased but rain was still affecting parts of the city.
More orange weather warnings and yellow watches were in place for for Monday as a low pressure system crossed the country.
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