New Zealand floods could take years to clean up, with 1,200 people displaced

A fourth straight day of rain brought by an atmospheric river' has damaged roads and homes and forced more than 400 households to evacuate

Torrential downpours that have battered New Zealand for four days straight have caused floods that could take years to clean up and displaced at least 1,200 people from their homes in the top of the South Island.

Friday's rain comes on top of weeks of wet weather and is worsening conditions in New Zealand's already sodden landscape. Experts have attributed the unseasonably wet weather to a narrow stream of water vapour, or atmospheric river", sitting above the country.