Northland has been completely cut off from the rest of New Zealand after almost two months worth of rain fell in the Far North in less than a day.
Roads are closed and rivers are flooding across the region.
Emergency Services were flat out. Fire Communications
shift manager, Jaron Phillips, says the fire service responded to
more than 350 emergency calls.
Flooding caused units at a Haruru Falls motel to be swept away,
along with a house at Waioimo. Several people were caught up in the
flowing water, but there were no reports of any casualties.
The severe weather also kept coast guards busy. A rescue was
carried out on the Haruru Falls after reports of seven people
missing on a kayaking trip. One woman was left clinging to a
rock before rescuers reached the group.
A man was also recovered after struggling in floodwaters in the Whangae River near Opua.
Multiple calls were received from the public advising of eight
vessels adrift in the Kerikeri Inlet. And a boat which broke its
moorings on the Manukau Harbour was recovered by the
Coastguard Rescue Vessel after drifting through the
treacherous Manukau Bar.
In Whangarei rain mixed with raw sewage flooded streets in
the city, forcing business owners to sandbag their doors.
A Civil Defence Emergency Operation Centre was opened in the city.
Ruakaka residents are already describing the rain as the worst in memory, with roads blocked and businesses swamped.
One of New Zealand's oldest buildings, the Kerikeri Stone Store, had to be evacuated. The contents of the store and adjacent Kemp House were moved to a nearby church hall ground as river levels rapidly rose.
Historic Places Trust spokeswoman Leslie Brice said it was not worth taking the risk as there were a number of historic artefacts and archives within both buildings. Brice says they have sand-bagged the buildings as there is a river within metres of the store which has now burst its banks.
While Northland is bearing the brunt of the storm, other parts of New Zealand are being warned they are next.
As well as Northland, MetService has issued a heavy rain warning for Auckland and the Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, north Gisborne and northwest Nelson. They are also maintaining a weather watch on the Mount Taranaki area.
The heaviest falls are likely to be over the Coromandel and Kaimai ranges on Thursday night and around the Bay of Plenty and north Gisborne area during Friday. Some heavy rain is also expected on the ranges of northwest Nelson through to early Friday morning.
The bad weather has been caused by a moist northeast flow that has spread rain over much of northern and central New Zealand.
MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt says the reason the rain has lasted so long is because of a large anticyclone over the Chatham Islands.
"This stationary high-pressure centre is what we call a blocking high. Northern New Zealand is now in the region where subtropical moisture flows down from the northeast."
In the 24 hours ending 9am Thursday, 150mm of rain had fallen in Kaikohe and 268mm had fallen in Kerikeri.
"In these places the average March rainfall is around 100 millimetres, so they've had much more rain than needed to green the grass," says McDavitt.
Services out
The bad weather also caused power outages throughout the North Island.
A tree fell across lines supplying power to Russell, cutting off power to 1,200 Top Energy customers.
Strong winds also hammered the western Bay of Plenty causing power cuts in Te Puke and Paengaroa. A big power outage also hit downtown Tauranga and surrounding suburbs shortly before midday Thursday. That was caused by a cable fault and power has been restored.
A handful of Auckland suburbs were alsowithout power due to the bad weather. More than 400 houses in Glendene and at Port Albert north of the city are without power.
Telecom customers north of Kerikeri also reported problems with
the phone service.
For the latest forecast information visit
tvnz.co.nz's
weather
page.
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