ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Elton John concert cancelled due to wild New Zealand weather

Wading through flood waters in Auckland, New Zealand, on Jan. 27, 2023.  (Hayden Woodward / New Zealand Herald via AP) Wading through flood waters in Auckland, New Zealand, on Jan. 27, 2023. (Hayden Woodward / New Zealand Herald via AP)
Share
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -

Torrential rain and wild weather in Auckland on Friday caused disruptions throughout the city and an Elton John concert to be cancelled just before it was due to start.

About 40,000 people were expected to attend the evening concert at Mt Smart Stadium in New Zealand's largest city. Thousands were already at the venue when organizers decided to cancel not long before John was due to take the stage at 7:30 p.m.

The concert was billed as a final farewell tour for John. Frontier Touring, one of the concert promoters, tweeted the concert had been cancelled due to unsafe weather conditions.

Many concertgoers who had braved the conditions were frustrated the decision hadn't been made hours earlier.

Weather agency MetService warned of flash flooding and hazardous driving conditions throughout the city. On Friday night, transport authorities closed parts of State Highway 1, the main highway that bisects Auckland.

Video posted online showed waist-deep water in some places, and authorities were asking residents in flood-prone areas to be prepared in case they needed to evacuate.

Lawmaker Ricardo Menendez posted a video of water surging into residential houses. "We've just had to evacuate our home as the water was already rising rapidly and coming in aggressively," he tweeted.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand said it had taken over 1,000 calls for help, but that many calls were from people who had flooded properties. The agency was urging callers to clear the lines for those in immediate danger.

The unseasonable weather also caused some flights to be delayed or canceled.

Auckland Airport said it had reduced its runway operations after an arriving aircraft had damaged runway lighting.

"This is largely impacting international arrivals and departures and larger aircraft travelling domestically," the airport wrote on Twitter. "Our maintenance team is on site and is working hard to fix the damage."

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told Radio New Zealand "We need the rain to stop. That's the main issue."

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.

B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.