A couple have spoken of their horror at hearing their daughter scream for help in the dark after their house was ripped apart in a devastating landslide in New Zealand.
Teressa Hodgson, her partner Luke Hanan and their five kids were inside their Tauranga home, southeast of Auckland, on Saturday night when they heard a huge ‘bang’ before everything started to shake.
The family had only just finished renovating their dream home but the record-breaking rain in Auckland and across the rest of New Zealand’s North Island had made the ground beneath the house loose.
Within a matter of minutes, their house was flooded with thick mud, with the force of the landslide so strong, their home was pushed down the street and their childrens’ bedrooms became completely detached.
‘We could hear Luke’s daughter calling for help, she was saying ”help me, help me” but we couldn’t see her because it was dark,’ Ms Hodgson told The Today Show on Tuesday morning.
Teressa Hodgson, her partner Luke Hanan and their five kids were inside their Tauranga home, southeast of Auckland, on Saturday night when they heard a huge ‘bang’ before everything started to shake
‘After we got her and (son) Blake we turned around and came back out through our bedroom door. Luke ripped down the neighbour’s fence and we ran out onto the street looking for their bedrooms.’
Miraculously, the couple’s three other children had been rescued by neighbours and the parents found them safely inside their homes ‘in their underwear covered in mud’.
Ms Hodgson explained that when the landslide first began she and her partner didn’t know where in the house their children were.
As it was school holidays, the couple had let their older children stay up while they went to bed.
‘We were asleep in bed at the time and just heard an incredible bang and then what felt like one of the biggest earthquakes we’ve ever been in,’ Mr Hanan said.
Their family home, which had only just been renovated, was completely destroyed in the landslide
The house was crushed and pushed into the middle of the road with their childrens’ bedrooms detached
‘Just having the house rip apart, fill up with mud and debris and start collapsing – one of the scariest moments ever.’
Their thoughts immediately went to their children and Ms Hodgson and Mr Hanan were forced to crawl through mud and glass, screaming their names in the dark to try and find them.
‘I found my son pretty easily, he was crying in his doorway so we picked him up and tried to get through but we couldn’t make it much into that mud,’ the mother said.
‘After a while of trudging through the mud we could see the kids’ rooms weren’t even attached to the house anymore.’
Ms Hodgson earlier said she feared the worst when she couldn’t find her daughter Bailee – the youngest of the five children.
The heavy rainfall in Auckland has already claimed four lives
‘[Bailee’s] whole bedroom had disappeared, it just wasn’t there at all. It was only then I lost it and started screaming. I thought the bedroom must have been crushed to the ground with Bailee under it,’ Ms Hodgson told Stuff.
‘We were crawling through mud and glass shouting the kids’ names. It was pitch black. The house was still moving. We thought they were buried under the mud, dead.’
While the family are safe at a friend’s house, the children are still struggling to sleep after the terrifying ordeal.
Relatives have since started a fundraiser for the family after they lost their entire home, both cars and all possessions in the landslide.
One home in Auckland is seen destroyed after heavy rain and a landslide ravaged the city
They’d spent two years renovating their home which was finished just a day before the landslide.
Their two pet cats remain missing.
The treacherous weather in New Zealand has claimed four lives already, with a dangerous amount of rain forecast for Auckland on Tuesday.
A state of emergency was declared on Friday when a volume of rain that would typically fall over an entire Southern Hemisphere summer hit in a single day.
At least 5,000 homes and businesses were being assessed for flood and landslide damage and several roads remained closed after more than 15cm (6in) of rain fell in three hours.
The state of emergency for Auckland and surrounding districts was lifted on Monday morning but Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown warned that dangerous conditions were forecast to return on Tuesday.
‘My team’s current focus and our big worry is that some Aucklanders might think the worst is behind us, but it isn’t,’ Mr Brown told reporters.
He said up to 12cm (almost 5in) of rain was forecast in some areas that were already waterlogged.
‘That’s nothing like Friday night, but the ground is so saturated and the drains are so full that if anything, it could be more dangerous than even Friday,’ Mr Brown said.
At least 5,000 homes and businesses were being assessed for flood and landslide damage and several roads remained closed after more than 15cm (6in) of rain fell in three hours on Friday
He said the number of residents of Auckland and surrounding areas asking for help due to storm damage would continue to rise.
‘It has taken some time for everyone to appreciate just how big and widespread an event this has been and it hasn’t finished yet,’ he said.
‘The downfall was by far the biggest in our history. It was well beyond even what our emergency people either imagined or planned for.’
The heavy rain warning for Tuesday covered Auckland and further north on the North Island.
‘This rain is expected to cause dangerous river conditions and significant flooding. Slips and floodwaters are likely to disrupt travel, making some roads impassable and possibly isolating communities,’ a MetService statement said.
Auckland schools will remain closed until next week.
Auckland Airport has resumed operations that were shut down by the storm on Friday but the airport warned in a statement that flight schedules may be disrupted for several days.