The slip site where a person died in a motor vehicle incident on State Highway 2 south of Wairoa on Sunday morning. Photo / Paul Taylor.
The slip site where a person died in a motor vehicle incident on State Highway 2 south of Wairoa on Sunday morning. Photo / Paul Taylor.
Two people are dead and another is critically injured after three serious crashes in Hawke’s Bay as more heavy rain and flooding hit the region at the weekend.
One death took place on Sunday morning when a car hit a slip blocking State Highway 2 south of Wairoa.
A police spokesman said that while the investigation was ongoing, it appeared the slip had already come down when the vehicle hit it.
The incident was reported at 4.40am, between Wairoa and Awamate Rd, and it was soon afterwards that police were also dealing with the death of a person found after an apparent crash at a rural intersection west of Dannevirke.
The slip drifting from a hillside after the deluge, causing the prolonged closure of SH2, with 130-185mm of rain reported in 24 hours in parts of the Wairoa District. Photo / Paul Taylor
Less than 12 hours earlier up to six people were injured, one being flown to hospital in critical condition, after a multi-vehicle State Highway between Dannevirke and Matamau.
While there was rain throughout Hawke’s Bay it was harshest north of Napier, with slips and flooding closing at least 20 roads in the Wairoa District where emergency services and Civil Defence management were on alert for the possibility of evacuations and other emergencies on Sunday.
It came less than three weeks after the last hit in the Wairoa area at the end of the first week in November and with much of the area still in recovery mode after Cyclone Gabrielle in February.
By mid-afternoon, when severe weather warnings were no longer in place and conditions had eased pointing to fine weather on Monday 103.2mm of rain had been recorded in Wairoa in the 24 hours to 3pm, 57.9mm of it since midnight.
The Wairoa Yacht Club off Kopu Rd is alongside, and all-but in, the Wairoa River. Photo / Paul Taylor
Rainfall of 185mm had been recorded at Pukeorapa, which averages more than 3000mm a year east-northeast of Wairoa and inland from Nuhaka and Mahia, which took much of the hit about November 7, when at one stage 38mm fell in one hour.
Further inland, over 130mm of rain was recorded at Marumaru north of Wairoa towards the Ruakituri Valley, flooding the Mangapoike Stream and elevating to peak levels the Wairoa River through Wairoa.
The SH2 sector where the fatality took place, had been closed for more than 10 hours on Sunday, with the road mainly cleared but the slip still on the move. Waka Kotahi kept the road closed overnight into Monday for safety.
Traffic was detoured through Awamate Rd, which itself had been closed overnight because of a slip near its northern intersection with SH38.
Well-being checks were also done in the North Clyde area by a Wairoa Civil Defence recovery team, and an evacuation centre was opened at the War Memorial Hall for use if needed.
A boil water notice was also in place for Wairoa’s Mahanga and Tuai areas.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter Service, which was called to the crash south of Wairoa, said that four other people were taken to Wairoa Hospital by Hato Hone St John Ambulance, one of them being later flown to Hawke’s Bay Hospital in Hastings.
The fatality in southern Hawke’s Bay was discovered at the rural intersection of Top Grass and Kearney roads.
Police said four vehicles were involved in Saturday evening’s crash in which it was understood several people were on their way back to the Wellington area from an event in Napier.
According to online Ministry of Transport road toll statistics, the fatality near Wairoa was the first in the Wairoa District this year and, with the fatality in Southern Hawke’s Bay, took the toll in the area from Wairoa to the Tararua District this year to 15, the same as last year.
