Two homes and a block of units have been evacuated in Porirua this morning after a landslip struck two apartments beneath a cliff in the suburb of Paremata.
Fire and Emergency NZ said it received a call at about 9.38am to a landslip between Walker Ave and Acheron Rd.
The service responded with two trucks from Paremata and Porirua as well as a command checkpoint from Wellington.
“We evacuated two houses above the cliff, as well as the apartments below that had been breached,” a spokesperson said.
Search and Rescue provided a drone to assess the damage and the council sent a geotechnical engineer to assess the slip,
“No roads have been cordoned off and the slip is now in the hands of the counci,” Fire and Emergency NZ said.
Porirua City Council said the slip was “moderate” and that up to three homes were “currently inaccessible”.
“We are working with the geotechnical engineer to assess when those homes will be available to safely access again.”
Resident: ‘There was a loud noise’
Leilani Ah Koi told 1News she was evacuated this morning after the landslide but had since been allowed back in.
“There was a loud noise, it sounded like some kind of wheelie bin rumbling kind of noise, then I looked outside to see a big part of the bank had come away.
“We grabbed our belongings as much as we kind of could, pets, where they would come with us, and various bits and pieces to go and stay somewhere else overnight and raced out the door.”
She said it was fortunate that the slip happened during the day.
“I think if you know it was midnight, or some other time when it was dark and you just didn’t know what was going on, you just hear the sound, and probably it’d be quite a lot more scary.”
Mayor Anita Baker said she was “very sorry” to see the slip.
“My thoughts are with the property owners as they work through this. [The] council has been working alongside FENZ and police to help where required.”
