Month's worth of rain in a day in Tauranga as wild weather lashes Bay

Bell Rd, Papamoa nearly underwater as heavy rain continued to come down. Photo/John Borren

Hundreds of calls were lodged with councils and emergency services yesterday as Tauranga was hit with a month's worth of rain in one day.

Slips, flooding and dog evacuations caused numerous call-outs and the full extent of the havoc wreaked by the tail of Cyclone Debbie as it lashed the Bay would be revealed today as more rain was expected overnight.

However, weather conditions were expected to ease today, a forecaster said.

MetService forecaster Gerard Bellam said 103mm of rain was recorded at Tauranga Airport in 24 hours with more expected to have fallen overnight.

Levi and Cheyenne in front of a house on Bell Rd, Papamoa. Photo/Kerri Anne Fraser

The average rainfall recorded at the airport was 117mm, he said so the downpour was "quite dramatic."

However, some sunny spells were expected in the Western Bay today with the odd isolated showers coming across the Kaimais and a high of 23C.

A mostly fine day was expected on Friday with light winds and 22C.

Tauranga City Council received 24 weather-related calls yesterday for a mixture of surface flooding, blocked sumps, sandbag requests and ponding on private property.

Mauao base track was closed due to slips and debris. It would be reopened once it was deemed safe for public use.

Grenada St in Papamoa had to be closed overnight due to flooding and would be reassessed this morning.

Council said the Chapel St wastewater treatment plant was working overtime to cope with large amounts of inflow.

Treated water had to be discharged into the harbour twice on Tuesday night and was likely to be discharged again.

"This is always a last resort but within resource consent conditions. Health warning signs have been installed as a precaution.".

The wastewater system was running at capacity and a lot of excess water was getting into the network.

A manhole on Third Ave was coned off for safety in case it overflowed overnight.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council received more than 250 calls reporting slips, potholes, trees down and surface flooding.

Slips caused temporary road closures on Rocky Cutting Rd and Kaiate Falls Rd. Roydon Downs was closed due to a fallen tree and Te Puna Quarry Rd was blocked due to flooding and a slip.

Council communications spokeswoman Corrie Taylor said the pump stations and wastewater treatment plants were handling the rain though staff were monitoring them constantly.

Five dogs had to be evacuated from the Te Puke pound, as flood waters crept up.

"The water hadn't reached the shelter but it would have under high tide so we got the dogs out while we still could in the morning," Ms Taylor said.

The dogs were in foster homes or at the Katikati shelter.

Fire communications duty shift manager Jaron Phillips said in the 24 hours since 5pm Tuesday there had been 43 call outs to the fire service for rain-related issues.

"One event was a rural driveway in Welcome Bay had flooded, blocking the residents' way out, but they were not in any danger and they were told to call if it got any worse," he said.

"Overall it has been busy, the weather has been a significant"

A police spokeswoman said there was a number of weather-related incidents in the evening which police were called in to help with.

Trees down on Takitimu Drive and Te Puna Station Rd closed lanes required police traffic management.