More rain set for BOP, Coromandel

Whitmore Park, home to Napier Technical Rugby club. Photo / Paul Taylor

More rain is on the way for the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel Peninsula and the East Cape today, but fortunately the drenched Hawke's Bay is forecast to miss the coming deluge.

The Hawke's Bay remains in a state of emergency as the clean up of landslips and flooding continues.

Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler said last week's storms had "ruined the region" and the cleanup would take more than six months.

"It's bad down here. Entire cliff-faces of farmland are lying at the bottom of the valley and are being washed out to sea ... A lot of people have lost their livelihoods."

Many roads damaged by slips or fallouts might never be reopened, Mr Butler said. "The damage is huge. It may never be the same here again."

Schoolchildren in the northern Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa will be staying at home today after a landslip cut off the water supply to the area following last week's heavy rain.

Heavy rain overnight for Northland

Northland has been lashed with high winds and heavy rain overnight.

MetService forecaster Geoff Sanders said the bulk of the rain has fallen on the east coast of Northland, with 85mm falling in Kerikeri over a 24-hour period until 8am this morning, and 69mm falling in Kaikohe and 53mm falling in Whangarei over the same period.

"It's easing, but there will be a few showers late morning, early afternoon," he said. "The winds are quite strong though."

Fire Service Northern Communications spokeswoman Megan Ruru said crews were only called out to about half dozen incidents, mainly due to the high winds.

While the rain for Northland is easing today, more is expected on Friday, although it will be focused more to the west of the region, Mr Sanders

In Auckland, bad weather postponed the opening of the fourth southbound lane on the Southern Motorway between the Newmarket Viaduct and the Greenlane exit, which was supposed to happen last night. The Transport Agency said the work would be finished during the next fine night.

Weather Watch chief analyst Philip Duncan said blustery winds in parts of Auckland gusted to about 80km/h last night.

"One report came in from the CBD saying they were hearing things breaking and being blown off balconies. In the city we have the wind-tunnel effect caused by the high-rise buildings.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there are gusts in the city centre of 100km/h or even 120km/h."

More rain to come

MetService has issued severe weather warnings for the Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, and Nelson as the deep low drifts southwards.

Mr Sanders said 150mm of rain forecast in the Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty had begun to fall this morning, and the same amount is expected north of Gisborne from this afternoon through to 9pm tomorrow night.

"That's not good news for either the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel or for Gisborne, because they've had significant rain already."

The new low follows one last week which soaked much of the country, in particular the central North Island.

"It's not unusual for this time of year to get this sort of set up going. It takes a while for us to start losing these lows coming down from the north," Mr Sanders said. "They have a life of their own.

"This low is going to be with us for the week, and will affect different regions on different dates."

Hawke's Bay clean up continues

A state of emergency remains in place in central Hawke's Bay and would be reviewed this morning after last week's storms shut off beachside towns and forced the evacuation of dozens of residents.

Engineers were hoping to have a temporary water line running this afternoon and were also working on repairing the main line, Wairoa District Council spokeswoman Sonia Anderson told NZPA.

Water tankers would continue to supply households with water until the temporary line was established.

Schools, kindergartens and early childcare centres in the area would be closed until Wednesday at the earliest, as a precaution, Ms Anderson said.

Access to southern Hawke's Bay beaches Blackhead, Kairakau and Mangakuri was restricted to essential services and residents with permits only, while no access was available to Aramoana and the southern end of Pourerere Beach.

On Saturday, up to five children were evacuated by helicopter from Aramoana and eight people by four-wheel drive from Mangakuri.

Mr Butler said it was expected to take up to three weeks to reopen the road to Aramoana, and access to the southern end of Pourerere Beach was closed indefinitely.

Police were patrolling the coastal communities.

About 65 people were evacuated from Aramoana, Kairakau and Mangakuri, though some residents chose to stay.

Two farm owners remained in Aramoana with a staff member each, but were in constant contact with Civil Defence and could get out by motorcycle if needed, Central Hawke's Bay Civil Defence emergency management officer Bruce Kitto told NZPA.

The Earthquake Commission had received 124 claims from the Hawkes Bay storm but that number was expected to grow significantly, chief executive Ian Simpson said.

EQC covered landslip damage to buildings, with some cover for land damaged by storm or flood.

- additional reporting: Nicholas Jones, NZPA