Heart-breaking photos from flooding devastation

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1/12 Houses and farms cut of at Taneatua . Photo / Andrew Warner.
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2/12 Major flooding in Taneatua. Photo / Andrew Warner
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3/12 Flooding at Tangiteroia west of Whangarei after the Northern Wairoa River burst its banks. Photo / Myles Durrant
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4/12 Flooding at Tangiteroia west of Whangarei after the Northern Wairoa River burst its banks. Photo / Myles Durrant
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5/12 Flooding around the Tauranga Eastern Link. Photo / Andrew Warner
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6/12 The streets of Edgecumbe were turned into canals. Photo / Andrew Warner
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7/12 Edgecumbe experienced major flooding. Photo / Andrew Warner
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8/12 Farmers helped out to evacuate residents of Edgecumbe. Photo / NZME
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9/12 Edgcumbe was badly hit. Photo / George Novak
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10/12 Severe washout at Galatea. Photo / NZME
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11/12 The Kaituna River has burst its banks. Photo / George Novak
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12/12 Flooding in the Eastern Bay looking towards Whale Island. Photo / Andrew Warner
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These terrifying images show the scale of this week's flooding.

In the Bay of Plenty town of Edgecumbe, hundreds of homes are under water and thousands of residents have been evacuated after the Rangitaiki River burst its banks.

Defence Force personnel in unimogs and rescuers in jet boats led the mass evacuation in what the mayor described as a ''one-in-500-years'' event.

The photos also show the flooding of the Kaituna River and the Rangitaiki upstream at Galatea.

Further south, residents were earlier evacuated in a Wellington suburb after a stream burst its banks. It was happier news in Whanganui this morning as evacuated residents were able to start returning home after high tide.

However, Edgecumbe today resembles a scene from Waterworld with the local river pouring into neighbourhoods, in some places almost 2m deep and rising.

This article was first published on NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.

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