Source: Radio New Zealand
Surface flooding on Princes Street and Furlong Street intersection in Hāwera. Supplied / South Taranaki District Council
Streets have been closed in Hāwera after heavy rain overwhelmed stormwater network causing surface flooding in the South Taranaki town.
A council spokespersoon said they had experienced extremely heavy rain coming down in a very short period of time.
“We have got all of our crews out there checking drains, clearing sumps, putting up signage and implementing traffic management where roads are flooded. For example, the Princes Street/Furlong St area in Hawera has been closed due to surface flooding.
“The extreme rainfall appears to have been centred around the central and southern parts of the district, with most of the calls we’ve received having come from Hāwera, Normanby and to a lesser extent Manaia and Pātea.
Council crews were checking drains, clearing sumps and putting up signage and putting in place traffic management in the affected areas.
The spokesperson said the rain had eased somewhat since the deluge and was forecast to be light for the rest of the day.
“Our emergency response team is continuing to monitor the situation and we urge drivers to take extra care on the roads and avoid driving on the roads if they can.
“One area to pay special attention to is State Highway 3 (the stretch between Hāwera and Normanby, outside the Hāwera aerodrome). Waka Kotahi/NZTA have been advised.”
Local residents had taken to the Extreme Weather Taranaki Facebook page to share their experience of the deluge.
Beamsley Jesse Heathers had just left Hāwera.
“Surface flooding like rivers through the main streets. Could barely see out the windscreen. Torrential downpours. Did not know due to poor visibility, that roads were overflowing and drove into floods. One supermarket carpark not usable and then the sirens went up.”
Michelle Watt posted that she’d had 85mls in her rain gauge over 12 hours, while others put up photos of surface flooding.
And Hāwera Harness Racing Club announced the postponement of its meeting due to “the huge amount of rain”.
It was looking to reschedule to Sunday.
Hāwera Fire and Emergency chief Merv Watt said the rain was causing a few issues.
“We’ve had non-stop rain all morning. It’s been pretty heavy most of the morning and luckily we’ve only actually had one call out to a business. And they just needed a hand to get rid of some water out of the premises.
“It was just a place in town that had a lot of water run into the area. It was like a workshop and we just needed to clean the workshop out of water.
“There’s been a lot of surface flooding around the town, and the council have closed off some of the streets. But yeah, there’s no being real, no big emergency call outs for the river at the stage, except for that one.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
