A second weather front expected at the end of the weekend has Whangārei’s mayor concerned.
The timing was Ken Couper’s main worry, given the district and the Far North were just at the tail end of a 36-hour onslaught of heavy rain and strong winds.
Communities in both districts had been cut off by floodwaters yesterday with expectations access would remain an issue today.
The floods were even more of a blow for the coastal settlements of Ōakura and Whangaruru as they are still recovering from a damaging deluge in January.
Couper was worried about the lack of time between the severe weather just suffered and the second front coming.
“Once your ground gets saturated, it doesn’t take much to top it up,” he said.
“We will have to see what happens, and hopefully perhaps the situation will go in our favour.”
MetService confirmed the approaching weather front was weaker and faster moving than this week’s so unlikely to be at warning or watch levels.
Couper said the Whangārei District Council would be closely monitoring the situation and emergency services would most likely want to do a thorough assessment today about the state of the district.
His message to Whangārei residents was “keep your chins up”.
“We just have to work through this together.”
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell appeared to share Couper’s concern.
The minister called the second front “an added complication” while speaking to media in Whangārei during the storm on Thursday.
“Everyone is pre-positioned, EOCs [emergency operations centres] are stood up, the mayors, the regional chair, our first responders are all well positioned [and] have been proactive, making decisions early to make sure that our communities are protected and looked after the best that we can do,” he said.
Mitchell praised MetService for “doing a really good job of keeping us updated”.
“These weather conditions can change fairly rapidly,” he said.
Mitchell acknowledged the toll weather events could have on people in areas repeatedly impacted.
“With these rolling weather events fatigue is always at the forefront of our mind in terms of making sure that we do get to these communities and they know that they are being supported and looked after.”
He also cautioned against complacency.
“There was this fear of the boy who cried wolf and the typical Kiwi ‘she’ll be right’ type attitude. We don’t have the luxury of that anymore,” Mitchell said.
“We can’t afford to be complacent about these events because complacency leads to poor decisions ... the main goal for me always is the preservation of life, is that we don’t lose people.”
Yesterday’s weather prompted two of Northland’s three district councils to declare states of emergencies after communities were cut off by floodwaters.
Whangārei and the Far North opted for the measure as downpours and strong winds hammered the east coast, and the worst of the weather was yet to hit.
In Whangārei, floodwaters severed access to places such as Ngunguru and Whananaki, leaving some locals scrambling to find a place to stay the night.
As for the Far North, its more northern towns and settlements were cut off before midday yesterday as floodwaters made State Highway 10 in Kāeo and SH1 in Mangamuka impassable. As of yesterday afternoon, 17 roads in the Far North were closed.
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania said at the time that Kaitāia and the wider Te Hiku community were likely to remain isolated until at least today.