Empty shelves and cafes without coffee after New Zealand floods

New Zealand’s towns of Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown have been virtually cut off from the rest of the country after several bridges were washed away by the floods.

500 milliliters of rain

The South Island was ravaged last weekend by an amount of rain that normally falls over an entire year. According to metrologists, this only happens once every 100 years. In some places, more than 500 milliliters fell in two days.

As a result, hundreds of people had to leave their homes. Water levels in several rivers have reached record levels, causing parts of the bridges to wash out. The main connecting road, State Highway 1, had to be closed after motorists felt a bridge collapse below them.

Yesterday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern flew over the affected area. She posted a live video of it on Facebook. “It’s terrible to see the extent of the damage,” she said. The government is allocating $ 500,000 to support affected farmers and residents.

13 hours of detour

“But our top priority is to restore the infrastructure,” she said. The Air Force was deployed to supply a number of small places.

For motorists, there is a way to reach the southern parts of the island, but that means they have to drive until 1 p.m., via the west coast of the island. This route is not suitable for trucks.

‘Vulnerable’

The bridge will be repaired in the next few days, but it will not be an “easy task”. As long as the connecting road remains closed, supermarkets will continue to struggle with empty shelves. “It shows how vulnerable our supply is,” a spokesperson for a supermarket chain said. local media. “There are only one or two access roads.