Emergency services inspect damaged houses in Welcome Bay, Tauranga. Picture / Alan Gibson

Emergency services inspect damaged houses in Welcome Bay, Tauranga. Picture / Alan Gibson

In 22 years Mount Maunganui fire officer Keith Silvester has never seen his town flood to the extent of yesterday.

He and his colleagues worked all morning without a break, unblocking drains and pumping water from flooded homes and businesses as fast as they could.

"A lot of people, you can’t do anything for them except lift their furniture."

Six volunteers helped clean up sodden carpets at the Good Opportunity Shop in the shopping area on Maunganui Rd while staff at Bayfair Shopping Mall, at the other end of the main road, were also mopping up the last of a mess left when a stormwater drain burst at 1am.

Firefighters were at the mall until 6am pumping out water, which flooded into eight shops via a manhole. Sandbags were piled up by the manhole, which pulsed with the huge volume of water flowing underneath.

K Mart was the worst affected, with 3cm of water covering three-quarters of the football field-sized store floor when duty manager Andrew Ogilvie arrived at 9am.

Thankfully damage to stock was minimal as most of it was on pallets or shelves.

"We were able to open for business," Mr Ogilvie said.

On Portside Drive, in the town’s industrial area, stranded truckies anxious to get on their way risked driving through a section of the road closed because it was waist-deep in water.

Getting out of town was no easy task for anyone after the harbour bridge connecting Mount Maunganui with Tauranga was closed because of flooding on either side.

Motorists were left with no choice but to take the alternative route across the harbour at the opposite end of town.

Traffic crawled along the entire route, which had already been slowed by roadworks.

All day firetrucks and police cars could be seen racing to jobs in both directions.

The Rudolf Steiner School in Welcome Bay was evacuated as fears mounted that pupils could become trapped by rising floodwaters on the road outside.

"It’s impossible to get cars in and out," a spokeswoman said.

Buses were brought in to move the 116 students and 24 kindergarten children at the school to a pick-up point where parents could collect them.