Deluge keeps firefighters busy in Gisborne

WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT . . . Karen Lund snapped a car ploughing through a section of flooded road on the corner of Anzac and Carnavon streets at 5.15pm during the short but intense weather burst yesterday.

Gisborne city firefighters turned out four appliances in response to more than a dozen calls as a result of the thunder and lightning storm that swept across the city late yesterday afternoon.

The calls were to fire alarm activations and to some flooding caused by the weather system in the central city.

They came between 6pm and 7pm.

“We had crews attending to flooding in central business district premises and at the central city police station, all caused by the torrential rain,” a senior firefighter told The Herald.

The rainfall gauge at the airport recorded around 29 millimetres of rain during the deluge.

Eastland Network reported the lightning caused a few tripping issues around Gisborne and up the East Coast.

“But power was restored promptly,” the network reported this morning.

“If anyone has any issues with the power at their place, please report this to the Eastland Network faults line on 0800 206 207,” Eastland Network said.

Meanwhile, patrons in The Rivers restaurant were kept entertained by events caused by the storm — a fire alarm going off, firefighters busy inspecting the courthouse and police station, then the sound of what they thought was a car crash outside the restaurant.

Turned out it was just one car, which ran over a manhole cover that had popped off near Gladstone Road Bridge — the car losing a bumper from the force of the impact.