'Stranded': Hawke's Bay memories of Cyclone Bola start flooding back

The flooded Aropaonaui River and the submerging of the bridge about 12km east by road of State Highway 2 north of Napier. Photo / Supplied

A Hawke's Bay farmer has told how he had to rush home from town knowing that when he got there he'd probably be locked-in by the storm that hit its peak in Hawke's Bay early on Thursday.

Brian Cowper, who farms off Aropaoanui Rd, about 12km east of State Highway 2 at Tangoio, north of Napier, called it correctly and, having abandoned his welding class at the EIT in Taradale on Wednesday night, was by morning isolated on the farm – with 150 millimetres of rain overnight and the bridge nearby, the only way out, submerged by the torrent.

National weather agency MetService had forecast the heaviest in the area to fall from 2am to 5am, but was short on estimates, and the geographical range as falls of over 70mm were recorded also in Central Hawke's Bay.

While rainfall figures were starting to hit some of the one-day statistics of Cyclone Bola which brought over 700mm of rain to some parts of the Arapaoanui-Tutira area on March 6-8, 1988, Cowper said there had been "quite a few floods" over his eight years there and "this is not the worst of them."

The indications from the farm were enough to know what to expect, and he said: "I had a welding class at EIT scheduled for 5.30 pm last night and arrived early, at about 5 p.m.

There was torrential rain at that time and I called home to find it was much the same there, so I came home. The class normally finishes at 8 pm or thereabouts and I am sure the river was going to cover the bridge then."

He said the area at Bayview/Eskdale near the orchards had water across the road and there were some slips on the highway and Aropaoanui Road.

"The water was just under the bridge then," he said about midday on Thursday. "The heaviest rain from my experience came from 10pm through to 4am, although we have had showers off and on all morning. It is sunny and dry at the moment.

"The Aropaoanui River is in flood with the bridge well below the water line," he said. "We will be stranded until the river subsides and bridge is cleared of the usual debris."

"We are safe and well but our phone is out and we don't have any cellphone coverage but that is life in rural NZ," he said.

He said the number of slips on adjacent farmland gave an idea of the intensity of the rain, and it would be a reminder to those who were around in Cyclone Bola when the area was devastated by some of the worst erosion ever in Hawke's Bay – along with closing State Highway 2 for a week, destroying the main highway bridge through Wairoa, and devastating the east coast, including loss of life.

The Aropaoanui Rd closure isolated coastal Waipatiki, where the Hawke's Bay Regional Council had by mid-morning today recorded 170mm of rain since Tuesday.

Sheena Martin, further north on Cricklewood Rd and well-known as a farmer and sheep dog trialist, said rainfall in her area had also been about 150mm – "just a standard rain" - but she was aware of heavier falls in the Ruakituri and Marumaru area north of Wairoa.

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 that existed – more severe in some areas than others and this week heavier overnight than forecast and also further south than expected.

By 9am, there had been 112mm at Waipoapoa, which cops it in most heavier rainfalls in Hawke's Bay, and there had been rainfalls elsewhere in Central Hawke's Bay including 77.8mm at Porangahau.

Hastings had about 110mm in 24 hours, Macdonald said, adding it was considerably more than the 60-70mm forecast, while at the regional council's own Napier CBD recording station there had been about 90mm since midnight Tuesday.

Federated Farmers provincial president Jim Galloway obserced: "It's a lot damper than we have been in March for quite some years."

He had heard of rainfall of over 300mm over the last 3-4 days in some areas, and of farmer facing loss of land in multiple slips and facing repairs to damaged roads and fences.