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New Zealand farming hard hit by floods

Countries
New Zealand
Sources
DPA
Publication date

Wellington (dpa) - Farming - the backbone of the New Zealand economy - has been dealt a massive blow by last week's flooding in some of the country's most productive districts, Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said on Sunday after touring the stricken regions.

He said many farmers affected by the floods, which turned vast tracts of countryside in the lower North Island into lakes following monsoon-like rains, had been suffering under drought conditions only a year ago.

Sutton said damage to the New Zealand economy was set to exceed that of Cyclone Bola which devastated the east coast of the island in 1988, and said it would take some time for the rural community to recover.

The region's recovery from the wild unseasonal summer gales that began a week ago was hampered over the weekend by a fresh storm which whipped up the country, toppling thousands of trees, pulling down power lines, ripping roofs off houses and smashing windows.

The electricity utility PowerCo, which had battled to restore power to all but 400 homes cut off during the week, found 9,000 properties blacked out Sunday morning after overnight winds wreaked havoc on the area. Emergency services said it was a miracle no one was killed.

By late afternoon, all but 2,500 properties had electricity again and PowerCo said most would be lit up by nightfall.

But as floods subsided and people began mopping up their water ravaged homes throughout the region, weather forecasters said even more rain was on the way and it would be at least Wednesday before normal summer conditions were restored to New Zealand. dpa db mw

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