Desperate attempts were made to rescue a 17-year-old boy who was buried under the wreckage of a house destroyed by a giant landslide at Ohope Beach near Whakatane yesterday morning.
Senior Sergeant Bruce Jenkins, of Whakatane police, tonight confirmed the dead boy was Hughie George Biddle, who died when the slip, caused by torrential rain, happened just before noon.
Former school principal Rob Shaw escaped from the house when the slip crashed down but the teenager did not make it to safety.
Mr Shaw grabbed an axe and desperately tried to smash his way through a door to save the youth when the landslide engulfed his home.
Emergency services, urban search and rescue staff and engineers with earth-moving equipment spent most of yesterday trying to reach the boy. They battled against heavy rain and treacherous conditions as the cliffs above them were unstable.
Neighbours said the area was prone to landslides.
Mr Shaw, who takes in troubled teens, was in his kitchen when the landslide swept past his window.
He heard the boy calling out to him but he just couldn't get to him, neighbour Jo Jarrett told the Sunday Star Times.
He told her he was numb from the shock.
Mr Shaw is the former principal of Taneatua school, and is well-known within the community for coaching young rugby players, including Kiwis captain Benji Marshall.
It was the second time he had suffered tragedy. His stepson Greg Boynton-Shaw died in 2004 aged 31, with his friend after surfing waves whipped up by a cyclone at Omaio beach. Their bodies were found three weeks later.
Police said the ground behind and around the landslide was still very unstable and a number of other houses in the area had been evacuated.
Debris was spread over nearly quarter of an acre.
A massive pohutakawa tree was in danger of falling down the cliff onto the houses below.
Various parts of Whakatane suffered heavy flooding yesterday but MetService said the rain had eased although some heavy showers were still expected.
A welfare centre was opened at Ohope Christian Centre for those who had been evacuated.
