Driver rescued from raging floodwaters in three-hour operation

Emergency services spent more than three hours freeing a driver trapped in his car in rising flood waters near Mt Lyford in the early hours of this morning.

The vehicle had been swept off the road and was hooked on a tree, with water halfway up the door.

It took a rescue team of nine - including a specialist water rescue team - to co-ordinate the operation, with a raft and cables used to reach the driver and pull him through fast-moving water.

Hamiora Taite - team leader of Fire and Emergency's Specialist Water Rescue Team in Kaikōura - told Checkpoint the rescue was one of the most technical he had been involved in.

"The access to the vehicle was the issue, there was probably 100 metres of very rough, very swift water with debris coming down.

"So that was the main hazard for us and that was a bit that needed some careful negotiating to get over."

While the call to emergency services was made about 3.30am this morning, Taite said the complexities of the rescue meant it was not until about 6am that there were able to get the driver to safety.

It took an hour for the crew to arrive to the scene, and while the car was relatively stable, the water was rising, and Taite said the vehicle becoming flooded was definitely on the cards.

The crews had to use an inflatable raft with a tether on it so they were able to manage downstream hazards, the raft was then used as a pendulum across the floodwaters, with a bridge as a staging point.

"There was a span of water, maybe five metres between where the vehicle was hung up and where we were safe and in nice calm water. That was another quite dynamic piece - there was a lot of flow going through."

Once the team was able to reach the car, there was still the process of getting the driver out of the car and across the floodwaters back to the boat and safety.

"We packaged him up in a patient life jacket, and then we did a group wading technique to bring him back to that safe beach shed, package them in the boat, and then kept them nice and dry back over to where we could get them checked out by the ambulance."

Taite said the team had to wade across the water with tethered lines through the team rescuers, to manage their risk of getting across.

"They grabbed a hold of him, they got in a sort of flying V formation with him in the middle and brought him back in one package. So they were breaking the force of the water and supporting him to bring him to a safe area."

Taite said while the driver was happy to see the rescue crew, he did not have a whole lot to say.

"In a flood environment like that with limited visibility and limited awareness of what's further up river above our upstream spotter, you're prone to have debris and logs and trees and anything come down at any time. So we don't want to waste any time out there. So we got them as quick as we could and we brought them back as quick as we could.

"There wasn't a lot of small talk to be fair."

Taite said the incident was a reminder to all to not drive into floodwaters under any circumstance.

"You just don't know what the force is going to do, especially when it's dark. You don't know how deep it is, what it's done to the road.

"If people don't get in those situations, then that's a win for us. If we stay dry and don't have to go and do these things, then that's the ideal outcome."