Hawke's Bay farmers' relief after days of storm's impact

Waterfalls at Tangoio during the rain in the Tangoio area north of Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor

The website of national weather agency MetService looked a bit unusual today , devoid of any weather warnings after more than a week of rain greater in some cases than in Cyclone Bola 34 years ago.

This afternoon there were no "Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in force", "Severe Weather Warnings", "Road Snowfall Warnings" and "Heavy Swell Warnings."

But in Napier a late-afternoon meeting was being held to look at flood repair and relief for farmers – some facing huge damage to fences, tracks, hillsides and pasture, along with difficulties getting the day-to-day farm operations going again.

The only blessing was the new outlook up to the end of the weekend, with MetService saying: "There is minimal risk of severe weather for the outlook period at this stage."

The main highways, SH2 Napier-Wairoa and SH5 Napier-Taupo, were open but caution was still being warned by Waka Kotahi NZTA, with the roads still affected by the bad weather.

More locally, the general forecast for Hawke's Bay over the next week includes a mixture of showers, light winds and fine weather until cloudy conditions with light winds from Sunday to Monday next week before another period of showery weather.

Temperatures were forecast to peak between 20C and 24C during the daytime, and drop no lower than 10C at night.

The Hawke's Bay Regional Council is aware that the storm has been wider felt in Hawke's Bay and in some cases more severely felt than Cyclone Bola - Bola ravaged much of the North Island from the far north to Gisborne-East Coast and Northern Hawke's Bay to Napier and Hastings on March 6-8, 1988.

Among its features were the Wairoa River's destruction of the State Highway 2 bridge through Wairoa and the flooding of the town, the closing of the Napier-Wairoa road for more than a week, and widespread erosion.

Some of the most severe damage is believed to be in the Mangapoike and Tiniroto area north of Wairoa, but rainfall of at least 200mm in the last week has been recorded widely throughout Hawke's Bay from Te Urewera to Porangahau.

The Wairoa District Council is expected to release a statement on damage and recovery issues on Friday.