Source: Radio New Zealand
Flooding caused serious damage to the road surface on Whakapara Bridge, on State Highway 1 north of Whangārei. RNZ / Nick Monro
Weather-hit regions are set to get a reprieve as warnings lift and the rain moves to other parts of the country.
The red heavy warning which had been in place for parts of Northland expired 4am on Friday, but the Far North and Whangārei remain under a state of emergency until Thursday.
Damage to the Whakapara Bridge. RNZ / Nick Monro
MetService meteorologist Juliane Bergdolp said the deep sub-tropical low had moved to the east and many parts of the country were now in the clear.
“There is still some rain coming into the West Coast of [the] South Island and we still have some showers making their way into eastern parts of Bay of Plenty.”
Bergdolp said rain was expected to develop in the west of the South Island on Sunday, spreading to the west of the North Island on Saturday night or Sunday.
There were no rain or wind warnings in place for any regions.
Far North community member Mita Harris had been using a Unimog to help evacuate people and lift supplies as heavy rain hit the region. Harris said the storm did not last for long, but had impacted the region.
“This has been the biggest one this year so far, came in hard and fast – it was kind of a day or two and that was it, it was all over.
“The ground is saturated now and any more water coming in would certainly raise the levels quite quickly.”
State Highway 25 just north of Whangamata, crews clear a fallen tree. RNZ / Yiting Lin
Northland Civil Defence teams were assessing the damage after the latest storm.
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania said it would be a costly recovery with heavy rain and winds continuing as the low made its way across the country.
“This one is going to cost a lot of money to recover fully from both for us as a council with the infrastructure that we own and look after on behalf of the people but also for whanau themselves.”
Tepania said he was expecting the level of need to far exceed that of the January storms.
Whakapara Bridge bridge after the storm. NZTA
The Far North District Council said up to 410 cubic metres of floodwaters were flowing down the Awanui River every second – a level not seen since 1958.
Hundreds of people were evacuated in Kaitaia on Thursday night and more than 400 households and businesses were still without power on Friday morning after the heavy rain.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
