An early morning torrential downpour caused havoc in parts of
Nelson and Taranaki on Wednesday.
Up to a 100 millimetres of rain was dumped on some areas in the
early hours, closing schools in Nelson and hitting beach houses in
coastal Taranaki with mud and debris. Locals say they have never
seen anything like it.
Firefighters were called to help several residents of Nelson suburbs as stormwater systems and gutters struggle to cope with the deluge. They raced from property to property pumping out basements and attempting to divert water away from houses.
"Some houses we went through had at least 150 millimetres of water through the houses," says Stoke Volunteer Fire Brigade Senior Station Officer Jason Everitt.
The suburb of Stoke was the worst hit with the airport sodden and schools closed.
"Our school very, very quickly filled up with water in the playground we had streams going through the school," says Broadgreen Intermediate Deputy Principal Paul Johnston.
The rain came in the early hours of the morning and fell at a rate of about 10 millimetres an hour from 6am. Skies began clearing around midday. Around 20 millimetres more rain fell than the region usually gets for the entire month of May.
The bad weather made its presence felt in Taranaki mid morning.
Torrential rain caused the Oakura river to burst its banks.
The New Plymouth fire service was called just after 11am Wednesday to Hall Road after reports the river was flooding.
After arriving on the scene they discovered four houses had been affected and a car was floating down the river.
Deputy chief fire officer John Nicholls says all they could do was watch. The car went out to sea and later turned up on a local beach.
A few houses near Oakura were also flooded, but Senior Emergency Management Officer Mike Langford says thankfully the damage isn't too bad.
By late in the day the worst of the weather had passed over the country, but without dropping in on where it was most needed - on dry farmland in the Hawke's Bay.
