Heavy rain disrupts travel as roads close in Far North

Rainbow Falls in Kerikeri were roaring on Tuesday afternoon. Photo / Ray Wiblin

Parts of the Far North remained under close watch yesterday after MetService upgraded Northland’s heavy rain warning to red, triggering road closures, restricted access and the opening of an emergency operations centre in Kaikohe.

MetService issued the red warning, which is reserved for the most severe weather events, with intense downpours of 25mm to 40mm per hour forecast. Severe weather warnings were also escalated for Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and northern Tairāwhiti/Gisborne, with heavy rain expected to continue through to Thursday morning.

The warning was in place until 11pm last night.

In response, the Far North District Council (FNDC) opened its Emergency Operations Centre in Kaikohe to co-ordinate support and monitor conditions.

FNDC said 20 roads had been affected and of those, two were closed, and 13 were down to one lane or were passable only by four-wheel drive vehicles.

The closures included Rāwhiti Rd, where a bridge had been washed out since Sunday, and Waikare Rd, which was closed because of a washout.

“This road is often used as an alternative route between Kawakawa and Russell, and work is underway to reopen the link,” the council said.

A full list of affected roads is available on the council’s website.

“The rain is also reducing the capacity of contractors to undertake major repairs, delaying timelines on some projects.”

The council said that by 3pm yesterday the weather system had stabilised and while heavy rain was still being reported in some areas, rivers and streams had coped well.

There was flooding in the wider Ōtaua-Punakitere-Waimatenui area as well as on roads in the south of the district. A bridge on Ōtaua Rd had flooded.

“Far North District Council’s Emergency Operations Centre [EOC] will continue to operate tomorrow.

“EOC staff will be contacting communities in affected areas regularly to confirm local conditions and any welfare needs.”

Northland Civil Defence deputy chair Kelly Stratford said that while the worst of the rain had passed, conditions were still being monitored closely, and residents should expect some disruption to continue.

“We’re expecting rain again in the morning so we won’t be able to properly assess whether it’s clean-up or whether we’re still waiting for rivers to recede,” Stratford said.

She said most residents had responded well to warnings, although some had questioned why emergency text alerts were not issued.

“There was an expectation that one of those texts would come out, but we had a long lead-in to this event. Those alerts are reserved for short-notice situations,” she said.

“They are used if we have to evacuate and have no way of communicating face-to-face. At the moment, we have responders and volunteers on the ground who are talking directly to people.”

Roddy Pihema, a flood monitor with a local civil defence group, said rivers had swollen and further monitoring would continue today, weather permitting.

“The rain has put a lot of pressure on rural roads. One of the biggest issues we have at present is that they are slowly falling apart,” he said.

Pihema praised Civil Defence for its support and residents for following safety advice.

“Today we’ll drive around the subdivision and see how it looks. There are areas like Waiomio that tend to get cut off when things get really bad.”