Aropaoanui River is in flood with the bridge well below the water line. Photo / Supplied
The Napier-Wairoa road remained closed for a second night amid threats of more rain on top of a deluge being compared in some areas with that of Cyclone Bola 34 years ago.
Waka Kotahi NZTA said the SH2 closure since Wednesday, caused by flooding and slips, would, with more heavy rain forecast, continue until at least Friday night.
National weather agency MetService forecast periods of heavy rain bringing a "further" 90-130mm of rain to accumulate on top of what had already fallen.
Peak rates of 10 to 15mm/h were forecast and more localised projections for the cities and major towns ranged from 45mm in Wairoa from midnight to midnight, more than half during the morning, about 40mm in Waipukurau and mostly in the morning, to about 16mm in Napier from midnight to soon after midday.
SH38, connecting northern Hawke's Bay with Rotorua and Taupo via SH5 at Waiotapu, also remained closed overnight, and motorists were being advised to take special care, if travelling at all.
Rainfall since Wednesday morning was more than 200mm in some places and commonly exceeded 130mm throughout Hawke's Bay – considerably more and over a wider area than forecast by national weather agency MetService.
The three days of Cyclone Bola on March 6-8, 1988, brought more than 700mm in some places from Napier north including Gisborne and East Cape.
The latest deluge brought rainfall exceeding 200mm in 36 hours in some parts of the western ranges, 180mm at Glengarry of the Napier-Taupo highway, 165mm at Ruakituri northwest of Wairoa, 150mm or more in such areas as Arapaoanui, between Napier and Wairoa, and Crownthorpe, west of Hastings, and 100mm at Porangahau.
Highlighting the early-morning rainfall, which had been forecast to peak from 2-5am Thursday, there had been 112mm at Waipoapoa, and Hastings had bolted to about 110mm in 24 hours, Macdonald said, adding it was considerably more than the 60-70mm forecast. At the regional council's own Napier CBD recording station there had been about 90mm since midnight Tuesday.
There was widespread flooding, including low-lying coastal areas such as Westshore where parts of the controversial shingle embankment were washed out. There were spectacular scenes on the Haumoana-Te Awanga-Clifton coast, in the firing line of swells up to 2.3 metres from the northeast.
Brian Cowper, who farms off Aropaoanui Rd, about 12km east of State Highway 2 at Tangoio, called it correctly, rushing home from Napier on Wednesday night and by morning isolated on the farm – with 150 millimetres of rain overnight and the bridge nearby, the only way out, submerged by the torrent.
"I had a welding class at EIT scheduled for 5.30pm last night and arrived early, at about 5pm. There was torrential rain at that time and I called home to find it was much the same there, so I came home. The heaviest rain came from 10pm through to 4am."
He said the number of slips on adjacent farmland gave an idea of the intensity of the rain, and Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway agreed it would be a reminder to many of the farmland and hill-country of Cyclone Bola, which also closed Napier-Wairoa highway for more than a week and demolished the SH2 river bridge in Wairoa.
Westshore resident Norm Fraser was concerned about the seas, which had flooded the Westshore beach reserve more than he'd seen in his 15 years living in Charles St.
He said he had seen the seas come "over the top" of the embankments before but this time it had been "washed away."
A reserve barbecue table was submerged to within 20cm of the top and he said it was a sign of the urgent need for a remedy to the beach erosion which has plagued the area.
In one place the sea had carved two metres of shingle back from steps down to the beach, and councils were investigating.
Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management controller Ian Macdonald said that while the rainfall wasn't to the extent of Bola it showed the variations – more severe in some areas than others and this week heavier overnight than forecast and also further south than expected.
Rain, while light or stopped for most of the afternoon was expected to return to sometimes heavy falls into the weekend, but Macdonald said swells at sea were expected to dissipate.
Meanwhile, an adventure kayaker has drawn the ire of Hawke's Bay Coastguard rescuers, and a warning for people to avoid dangerous conditions and be aware of looming conditions before putting to sea.
Spokesman Henry van Tuel said a member of the public alerted the Coastguard and Police about 5.40pm on Wednesday to a kayaker apparently struggling to make headway about 500m off Napier's Marine Pde.
Rescued in failing visibility and deteriorating conditions, the man told crew he had entered a while earlier planning to either return to shore about the same point, or paddle around the port to Ahuriri.
More stories at https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today