Source: Radio New Zealand
Flooding in Kāeo township NZTA/Supplied
Civil Defence teams are heading out in Northland to assess how much damage the latest storm has caused.
A red heavy rain warning expired at 4am Friday and the Far North and Whangārei remain under a state of emergency for another six days.
Kaitaia is cut off and some people in remote parts of Kaipara, Hokianga, Whangaroa and the southeastern Bay of Islands have evacuated because of rising waters.
Around 17 marae welfare centres were set up for people in remote communities.
Road closures include two sections of State Highway 1 at Kaitaia, and sections at Whakapara, Mangamuka and Rangiahua. State Highway 10 is closed at Kaeo, State Highway 12 at Waimamaku, State Highway 15 at Parakao, Pakotai and Kaikohe. Two dozen local roads are closed in the Far North and nine in Whangārei due to slips and flooding. People are urged to avoid unnecessary travel and are advised not to drive through floodwaters.
MetService said Kaitaia had 193 millimetres of rain, more than double the town’s average monthly rainfall for March. Kerikeri received more than a month and a half’s worth of rain and Auckland more than a month’s worth.
Toto Nicholson says the local Pak’nSave, McDonalds, car wash and Bells Produce store in Kaitaia are inundated with water from the Awanui River which runs behind the area. Supplied / Toto Nicholson
River levels across Northland exceeded their flooding risk, with many spilling onto roads. Data from the Northland Regional Council showed that at least nine rivers went over their warning level for potential flooding.
A Northland woman said the flooding was the worst she had seen in years. Stella Matthews had to walk through floodwaters to reach her home near Kiripaka. She said sheds, vehicles and paddocks on her property were inundated by waist-high floodwaters.
Far North mayor Moko Tepania said the storm was worse than the flooding in January, because it had been more widespread. He hoped to get a better idea of how communities have fared on Friday.
He said in January, floodwaters swept mud through homes on Northland’s east coast, damaged roads and triggered landslides and the latest storm had presented more challenges.
“We’ll be requesting funding from central government just to help our people out. Just from that January event alone, we have had over $240,000 in applications for relief funding for our whanau. We know that this is more widespread and we’re going to have whanau that need that and we’ll have to start helping once this weather clears.”
Assessment teams would be out on Friday morning to gauge the extent of the damage and Tepania said a mayoral relief fund would be set up on Monday.
State Highway 1 is closed at the slip-prone Mangamuka Gorge in the Far North as a safety precaution. Supplied/NZTA
Storm moves towards Coromandel, Bay of Plenty
Fire and Emergency said extra resources were on the ground in Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty, as storms move on from the North.
Director of operations Brendan Nally said crews would stay ready to respond as the risk moved down into the Coromandel and Western Bay of Plenty.
“We’ve got extra resources that we have pre-positioned and sent in to support the local staff,” he said.
“Those specialist resources have been busy, so we were well ready for this event.”
Nally said they were keeping an eye on another turn in the weather expected toward Monday.
Meanwhile, he was urging locals to stay safe and warned motorists against driving in flood waters.
“Our specialist water teams and our [urban search and rescue] teams have been pulling cars out of flooded areas, or getting people from areas that have been surrounded and marooned from floods,” he said.
In one case, three people had been rescued from a car trapped in flood water on Thursday, Nally said.
“It’s one of those things that we see in floods, people, generally, underestimating how difficult it is to cross flooded areas.”
Nally said the safest thing was not to drive on flooded roads.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
