Aerial photo of agricultural vehicles being used to help evacuate Edgecumbe people to welfare centres. Picture: New Zealand Herald/newspix.co.nz

Large swathes of New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty is submerged under deep, murky floodwater as the region faces a catastrophe, the NZ Herald reports.

Bay of Plenty homes under water. Picture: New Zealand Herald/newspix.co.nzSource:Supplied

The arable North Island lowlands are swamped with silt-laden water after rivers could not contain the torrential rain that fell during this week’s storm.

The scale of devastation is enormous.

A boat makes its way down the street as flooding in Edgecumbe forced evacuation of residents. Picture: Andrew Warner.Source:Supplied

Aerial pictures show kilometres of farmland on the Rangitaiki Plains underwater, the silt-laden brown water dominant across the normally verdant landscape.

Edgecumbe is a town in disaster with water still lapping at window sills a day after a torrent burst through a breached stopbank.

Major flooding in Taneatua. Picture: Andrew Warner, New Zealand Herald/newspix.co.nzSource:Supplied

Hundreds of homes are underwater 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.

A flood-hit bridge at Galatea. Picture: Mark Mitchell, New Zealand Herald/newspix.co.nzSource:Supplied

Farm houses stand as isolated islands in a sea of brown water with no way in or out.

Rural communities are isolated with urgent supplies now being flown into some 2000 trapped residents.

New Zealand Defence Force personnel working in flood stricken areas of Whanganui on the north coast of New Zealand.Source:AAP

The Whakatane District remains in a state of civil emergency.

The Rangitaiki River remains swollen and still presents a danger to the region with fresh evacuations taking place this morning as pooling water threatens more homes north of Edgecumbe.

Amazing aerial images show the scale of the flooding.

Thousands of New Zealanders are being advised to evacuate their homes as the effects of the category 4 Cyclone Debbie are still being felt more than a week after the cyclone made landfall in Northern Australia.Source:AAP

Locals in the Bay of Plenty area were rescued on a truck trailer. Picture: Tautini HahipeneSource:Supplied

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.

— NZ Herald