News Story
Our brigade, like other emergency services, were at times stretched to cope with the effects of the overnight storm that passed across Northland, Auckland and North Waikato. Gale-force winds and heavy rain left a trail of destruction - houses damaged, roofs lifting, trees down and power outages. In addition there were calls to flooding: in some cases with possible rescues of people trapped in submerged cars. Roads were closed in the interests of public safety. The Fire Service responded to some 500 calls for help in the North of the North Island from 7 o'clock last night until 2 o'clock this afternoon, with requests for assistance still being made. Those with long experience say this might be a record response for storm-related events in the Region. Our members responded to 7 calls during the storm, one - at Murrays Bay where there were live power wires down - turned out to be a 5 hour marathon task protecting the scene awaiting linemen.
