Reporter recounts scary moment rogue wave 'came out of nowhere' to wipe out women during 1 NEWS storm interview

February 2, 2018

Kaitlin Ruddock was reporting on severe weather in Nelson, then nature intervened.

Chaotic raw video of a handful of locals being unfooted by a rogue wave near Nelson yesterday was completely unexpected, says the 1 NEWS reporter there at the time.

Kaitlin Ruddock says the sea surge that crashed into a group of people on the foreshore yesterday was breaking with force at random intervals.

"That video, it just gives you a sense of just how strong that surge was, but it came really unexpectedly because you had the sea surge coming in, it was at that peak, that high tide, coming in over the road," Ruddock told TVNZ1's Breakfast today.

"But it came at very unexpected times, so that wasn't happening every single wave that was coming in.

"It was definitely one of those rogue waves that just caught everyone off guard.

"We were standing there in a reasonably safe place and then all of a sudden this huge wave comes out of nowhere and took everyone by surprise. It was just a big wall coming for people."

Nelson was one of the hardest hit areas by the storm of ex-tropical cyclone Fehi yesterday, but the wild weather has largely passed today.

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