Missing pair airlifted out

Isolated and feared missing for three days, an elderly man and his grandson were lifted by helicopter from a flooded marae in the Waitotara valley of south Taranaki yesterday.

Fears for the safety of 75-year-old Sonny Kauika-Stevens and 11-year-old Courtney Curry became the focus of a day-long search as a helicopter team called on more than 30 properties in the valley.

"We could hear the helicopter flying over the valley all day, but there wasn't much we could do, only sit around," Mr Kauika-Stevens said.

Power and phone links to the Takirau marae were broken not long after a large party who had been attending a school at the marae left on Sunday afternoon.

More than 50cm of river water flooded the marae building, overturning freezers and washing away gas bottles, leaving the pair without food or water.

"I have seen three floods before but I have never seen one like this."

Mr Kauika-Stevens' son Clark drove from Otaki to make his own search, then tramped for six hours and nearly 30km through silt and slips from Waitotara.

"There were more than 30 slips on the way, one of them had to be the best part of a kilometre long, at times I just had to wonder why I was doing it," he said. The trio was located shortly before 5.30pm.

Earlier, a mother and her sick baby and two young girls and their father had been evacuated. A Telecom linesman missing in the valley since Sunday was also located and flown out.

Civil defence spokeswoman Bev Raine said the helicopter would return to the valley today to take in essential supplies to families still stranded.

Palmerston North-based rural insurer FMG is giving $100,000 to mayoral relief funds for flood victims established by the Manawatu District Council. It hopes other organisations will match its contribution.

The company had received some 800 claims as a result of the storm totalling more than $2 million.

Federated Farmers president Tom Lambie said farmers should keep damaged items until they had been seen by insurance assessors.

New Zealand's largest car and home insurer, Insurance Australia Group expects to have a clearer picture of property damage costs by the end of the week, after more inclement weather in the North Island.

- NZPA