Morning Report Essentials for Friday 2 May 2025
In today's episode, a massive cleanup is underway after yesterday's extreme weather hitting Wellington and Canterbury, National Security Advisor Tim Waltz appears to be out of the Trump Administration after the group chat blunder, Australian polls show Labor is expected to win the election on Saturday, but may need a helping hand from independent MP's, New Zealand's first official music chart began 50 years ago today, we have a political panel on national politics, and Kerry-Anne Walsh joins us from Australia.
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1News
09-07-2025
- 1News
'Devastating' - digging deep to clean up Motueka flood damage
Motueka locals are digging deep to put their lives back together and raise money for their neighbours, as the region reels in the wake of severe flooding. Civil Defence has called it the worst flood in nearly 150 years, and the Nelson Tasman region remains in a state of emergency. Blue Malosso, her husband and their two young kids had only moved to the Motueka Valley six months ago from Australia. Men cutting up and clearing fallen trees in Motueka Valley. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi (Source: The pair had put their savings into a tiny home which was completely gutted and dragged 400 metres from its section by the Motueka River. ADVERTISEMENT "Walls, doors everything sort of came off the house. You're finding broken bunk beds in the middle of orchards, beds that your kids slept in two nights ago, fridges just everything." On the day of the flooding, just over a week ago, they watched the river surge in height, and after they had dropped their kids off to safety in town they tried to save as much as they could. Blue Malosso and her child in front of her home which was picked up and taken hundreds of metres by floodwaters. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi (Source: "Getting in water waist deep, trying to push logs away from the house and then we came in to see what's behind us Saturday morning." She said it would almost feel easier if it was all swept away completely, rather than finding their belongings strewn around nearby fields and orchards. "You do just want to fall apart and sort of you know cry and not get back up, but when you've got two young kids you sort of don't have that luxury. "No matter how devastated you feel." ADVERTISEMENT The kitchen of Blue Malasso's home. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi (Source: She said sentimental things have been lost forever. "Things that meant a lot to me, like clothes that you brought your newborn kids home from the hospital in, nowhere to be seen. "I mean that's really devastating." Malosso said people have been offering clothes and shoes for her kids, and others offering to collect the bits of their ruined home for scrap. Flood damaged items piled up outside a property in the Motueka Valley. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi (Source: Nearby resident Tamara Jenkins owned a piece of land near where the Motueka River burst its banks. ADVERTISEMENT When RNZ approached her for comment, she was cutting down a fence taken out by fast-moving water during the initial rain event. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including deadly Texas floods, Australian woman attacked by a lion, and Elon Musk's new political party. (Source: 1News) "So, the river came up over the road and has taken out quite a chunk of our fence and the one going up into the paddock there. "It's never done that before." She said the fast-moving water was "really scary" and had changed the nearby landscape. "The river has taken off a massive chunk of the corner down there, which it has never been up that high." Kahu Stringer. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi (Source: ADVERTISEMENT Twenty-four-year-old Kahu Stringer had lived in the Motueka Valley for his whole life. He was chopping up forestry slash that had come down in the bad weather to turn into firewood. Stringer said the storm was the worst he had ever seen in the area. "Some people can't fully clean their property unless they got a digger because you can't drive a vehicle on it. "It's all just river silt all over everyone's property." Land near the Motueka River remains laden with silt and debris. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi (Source: He said it was hard to see the damage the flooding had caused. ADVERTISEMENT Throughout the region, businesses and community groups have offered fundraisers, free meals and a room for the night. The Hotel Motueka's fundraiser on Saturday night was a full house. General manager Vince Sibbald said locals turned out and dug deep, adding to the thousands of dollars they've raised in the past week. In total the business raised nearly $7000 for residents affected by flooding. Hotel Motueka general manager Vince Sibbald. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi (Source: Sibbald said they had also let people whose homes were damaged stay for free, with about 35 people sleeping there since the flooding began. "We've got some people here, they're just thankful they're warm, they're dry and their safe, that's our main focus." ADVERTISEMENT
1News
07-07-2025
- 1News
Death toll in Texas floods rises to 78
The death toll from flash floods that rampaged through Central Texas rose to at least 78 overnight as rescuers manoeuvring through challenging terrain found more bodies and continued their desperate search for many others, including 11 missing girls from a summer camp. In Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and other youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said. He pledged to keep searching in that Hill Country region until 'everybody is found" from Friday's flash floods. 10 other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials. The death toll is certain to rise over the next few days, said Col. Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety. ADVERTISEMENT Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing. Rescuers dealt with broken trees, overturned cars and muck-filled debris in the difficult task of finding survivors. People climb over debris on a bridge atop the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Ingram, Texas (Source: Associated Press) Families were allowed to look around the camp Sunday morning while nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches out of the water as they searched along a riverbank. Thunder rumbled from a new storm. A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went inside one of the cabins, which stood next to a pile of soaked mattresses, a storage trunk and clothes. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including deadly Texas floods, Australian woman attacked by a lion, and Elon Musk's new political party. (Source: 1News) At one point, the pair doubled over, sobbing before they embraced. ADVERTISEMENT With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so. People react as they inspect an area outside sleeping quarters at Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (Source: Associated Press) Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made. US President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Texas. The president said he would likely visit Friday. "I would have done it today, but we'd just be in their way," he told reporters before boarding Air Force One back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. "It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible." The destructive, fast-moving waters rose eight metres on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as flash flood watches remained in effect and more rain fell in central Texas on Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads. Officials said more than 850 people were rescued in the first 36 hours. Prayers in Texas — and from the Vatican Governor Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state. "I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday — for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,' he said in a statement. In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. History's first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, 'I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.' ADVERTISEMENT The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with century-old youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. Harrowing escapes from floodwaters Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics inside their homes, praying the water wouldn't reach them. At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs. Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road. Locals know the area as 'flash flood alley' but the flooding in the middle of the night caught many campers and residents by surprise even though there were warnings. Warnings came before the disaster ADVERTISEMENT The National Weather Service on Thursday advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger. At the Mo-Ranch Camp in the community of Hunt, officials had been monitoring the weather and opted to move several hundred campers and attendees at a church youth conference to higher ground. At nearby Camps Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, organisers also had mentioned on social media that they were watching the weather the day before ending their second summer session Thursday. Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area. US Rep. Chip Roy, whose district includes the ravaged area, acknowledged that there would be second-guessing and finger-pointing as people look for someone to blame.
Otago Daily Times
06-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Texas flood death toll reaches 69
The death toll from catastrophic floods in Texas reached at least 69, including at least 21 children, as the search for girls missing from a summer camp entered a third day. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, speaking at a press conference on Sunday afternoon (local time), said the death toll in Kerr county, the epicenter of the flooding, had reached 59, while another 10 had died elsewhere in Texas and 41 remained missing. Among the most devastating impacts of the flooding occurred at Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old Christian girls camp, where 11 girls and a counselor are still missing. "It was nothing short of horrific to see what those young children went through," said Abbott, who said he toured the area on Saturday and pledged to continue efforts to locate the missing. The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday. Larry Leitha, the Kerr County Sheriff in Texas Hill Country, said earlier that 21 children have died in the flooding. Officials speaking at the press conference on Sunday afternoon said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green county, five in Travis county and one in Williamson county. Officials said on Saturday that more than 850 people had been rescued, including some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm dumped up to 38cm of rain across the region, about 140km northwest of San Antonio. "Everyone in the community is hurting," Leitha said. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings and advisories for central Texas that were to last until 4.15pm (local time) as rain fell, potentially complicating rescue efforts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after President Donald Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. US Coast Guard helicopters and planes are helping the search and rescue efforts, the department said. Trump has previously outlined plans to scale back the federal government's role in responding to natural disasters, leaving states to shoulder more of the burden themselves. Some experts questioned whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm. Trump's administration has overseen thousands of job cuts from the National Weather Service's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving many weather offices understaffed, former NOAA director Rick Spinrad said. Spinrad said he did not know if those staff cuts factored into the lack of advance warning for the extreme Texas flooding, but that they would inevitably degrade the agency's ability to deliver accurate and timely forecasts. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees NOAA, said a "moderate" flood watch issued on Thursday by the National Weather Service had not accurately predicted the extreme rainfall and said the Trump administration was working to upgrade the system. Joaquin Castro, a Democratic US congressman from Texas, told CNN's "State of the Union" program that fewer personnel at the weather service could be dangerous. "When you have flash flooding, there's a risk that if you don't have the personnel ... to do that analysis, do the predictions in the best way, it could lead to tragedy," Castro said. 'COMPLETE DEVASTATION' Camp Mystic had 700 girls in residence at the time of the flooding. Katharine Somerville, a counselor on the Cypress Lake side of Camp Mystic, on higher ground than the Guadalupe River side, said her 13-year-old campers were scared as their cabins sustained damage and lost power in the middle of the night. "Our cabins at the tippity top of hills were completely flooded with water. I mean, y'all have seen the complete devastation, we never even imagined that this could happen," Somerville said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday. Somerville said the campers in her care were put on military trucks and evacuated, and that all were safe. The disaster unfolded rapidly on Friday morning as heavier-than-forecast rain drove river waters rapidly to as high as 9m. A day after the disaster struck, the summer camp was a scene of devastation. Inside one cabin, mud lines indicating how high the water had risen were at least 1.83m from the floor. Bed frames, mattresses and personal belongings caked with mud were scattered inside. Some buildings had broken windows, one had a missing wall.
