Nearly 300 homes and buildings are being assessed after yesterday’s hours-long deluge swamped city roads and properties across the Auckland region.
Auckland Emergency Management duty controller Parul Sood said 32 rapid impact assessment teams are busy getting around to 283 pre-identified damaged properties.
“As at midday today, our assessors have visited 122 properties. Of these, we have yellow-stickered two buildings in Māngere and Manly. No buildings have been red-stickered,” said Sood.
Sood said initial feedback suggests a large number of homes have superficial damage but some, especially in Whangaparāoa, have been affected by slips and land instability.
Auckland remains under a local state of emergency, some roads are still closed because of flooding and there is a risk that waterways will continue to rise with heavy rain and thunderstorms still possible.
Emergency management staff will be reviewing how long the state of emergency remains in force in the coming days.
A cold snap is also on its way with snow expected across the South Island and the Desert Rd volcanic plateau in the central North Island.
At an Auckland Emergency Management briefing this morning deputy controller Rachel Kelleher said most roads affected by flooding were now reopened and the train network, which ground to a halt yesterday, was back to normal.
This morning Kelleher said the region was recovering quickly.
”Despite the rainfall emergency services have coped well,” she said.
“Overnight the council received 39 requests for assistance. Two of these were for habitable floor flooding,” Kelleher said.
Fire and Emergency NZ also had a handful of calls for flood-related matters.
Kelleher said about a dozen people used Civil Defence Centres set up yesterday afternoon.
”Ten people were in the Wellsford centre overnight and one person was provided temporary accommodation in the central city area.”
While the deluge overwhelmed Auckland’s wastewater system, tap water remained safe to drink, Kelleher said.
The state of local emergency didn’t mean all schools need to remain closed.
No severe weather watches are in place for Auckland today, she said.
Here's your early morning Radar map📡
— MetService (@MetService) May 9, 2023
Some thunderstorms and lightning around, which will be in the mix today
Keep a close eye on the forecast at https://t.co/Yjbq0jgaoz pic.twitter.com/QtqU1j0IOf
State Highway 1 at Dome Valley and Brynderwyn Hills has reopened after the deluge but flooding has closed the southbound lane of Papakura-Clevedon Rd near the intersection with West Rd.
“Police continue to remind the public to take care on the roading network this morning following yesterday’s weather,” said a police spokesperson.
Watch the effective, or feel, temperature drop Wednesday into early Thursday.
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) May 9, 2023
The combination of strong wind ➕ colder air will mean wind chill temps of near or below zero for large parts of the South Island.
Rug up! 🥶 pic.twitter.com/68mZIDOqCT
Niwa reported that a combination of strong wind and cold air will now bring temperatures near or even below 0C for most of the South Island.
“It will certainly feel much colder than what we’ve experienced over the past week.”
The forecaster said wind gusts up to 70km/h may bring trees down after the recent rain.
Road snowfall warnings are in place for Lewis Pass, Arthurs Pass, Lindis Pass and the Crown Range Rd between 5pm and 11pm.
A road snowfall warning is in force for Milford Rd until 11am.
Snow showers are expected to fall above 900m along Desert Rd tonight and into tomorrow morning. There is a road snowfall warning in place for the area between 1am and 11am tomorrow.
MetService said around 1cm of snow may accumulate on the road near the summit tomorrow morning.
MetService has also issued a heavy snowfall watch for the northern hills of Southland north to the Waitaki River, excluding the lower-lying parts of North Otago, Dunedin and Clutha. This will be in place from 4pm today through to 2am tomorrow.
The heavy rain band over Bay of Plenty moves off to the east overnight. However, changeable, showery conditions are forecast for many places on Wednesday and Thursday as colder air starts moving over the country. Latest forecasts at https://t.co/Yjbq0jgaoz ^SG pic.twitter.com/eQVtTnXfEd
— MetService (@MetService) May 9, 2023
Christchurch’s temperatures are expected to drop to 3C overnight and reach up to 15C over the weekend.
Twizel will dip to the negatives, with temperatures between 0C and -2C.
Auckland’s overnight low will drop to 6C by Friday, with the day’s high expected to be 16C. But the sun is expected to come out and it will be a fine day across the city.
Today’s high for Auckland is 19C with a low of 10C.
It’ll be chillier in Hamilton, with a low of 0C forecast for Friday. The city’s highs will range between 13C and 16C from tomorrow through to next Tuesday.
Wellington’s low temperatures over the next few days into the weekend range from 7C to 9C, and the highs between 11C and 15C.
Winds will become quite strong on Wednesday with gusts frequently approaching & exceeding 70 km/h.
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) May 9, 2023
Given the recent rain, it may be easier for trees to come down.
It will certainly feel much colder than what we've experienced over the past week!
🔴 100 km/h gusts pic.twitter.com/AEL9uIxmI4
Yesterday, Auckland had up to 109mm worth of rain, with the heaviest rainfall occurring in Te Pai Park in Henderson where 103mm fell.
The deluge prompted Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown to declare a third state of emergency in four months.
MetService meteorologist Kathryn Hodge said the worst period of rainfall was between 10am and 1pm when Okura got 68.5mm worth of rain in two hours.
“It was a lot of rain spread out over the whole region.”
Meanwhile, in Northland, the highest rainfall was in Kaikohe, which received 123mm worth of rain.
“Even as the weather improves, not all streams and rivers have reached their peak,” warned Auckland Emergency Management duty controller Parul Sood. “It can take time for the rain that has fallen in the hills to make its way downstream.”
“Therefore, some waterways may still be rising even though the rain has eased. Any more heavy rain could cause surface and/or flash flooding around streams, gullies and urban areas.”
Auckland Transport group manager of metro services Darek Koper said travel today should begin returning to normal after yesterday’s weather caused gridlocks.
“With the forecast looking much better, we expect that the road and public transport network will be operating close to normal levels.
“There will still be work to do, with some road closures in places hit hardest by the rainfall yesterday, and we will be working to mitigate those as soon as possible.
“However, the network overall will be operating and able to take people to work, school and to go about their daily business.”
A number of Civil Defence Centres (CDCs) are open across Auckland. The most up-to-date list is available on the Auckland Emergency Management website.
“It’s heartening to see that few people have needed to use these centres, which means they’ve been able to shelter at home or with whānau and friends,” said Sood.
“We will continue to monitor the need for CDCs and shelters, as well as community-led sites, but most are likely to close over the next day or so.”
Auckland Emergency Management issued a region-wide emergency mobile alert about noon yesterday.
Mayor Wayne Brown, in Australia on business, delegated powers to deputy mayor Desley Simpson and said the decision to declare a precautionary State of Local Emergency was based on the lessons learned from the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods.
Meanwhile, Fire and Emergency New Zealandreceived more than 300 weather-related calls for help between 8am and 6pm.
Almost half of those calls were made between noon and 1pm.
Nineteen calls came from Northland and 286 came from Auckland.
As the thunderstorms moved south, Fire and Emergency received 48 weather-related calls in the Bay of Plenty area from 4pm-6pm.
Of these, 22 were in the Tauranga area and 15 were in the Rotorua area.
After carefully considering the advice of the Duty Controller I have decided to declare a precautionary State of Local Emergency. The decision is based on the lessons we learnt from the Anniversary Auckland floods.
— Mayor Wayne Brown (@MayorWayneBrown) May 9, 2023
Thirty Rapid Building Assessment teams are expected to start assessing buildings throughout the Auckland region from today.
“This is a hugely important step after any event like this. It ensures that any damage to buildings, unstable ground and any other potential hazards are identified quickly, and action is undertaken to reduce any risks,” says Sood.
“We want Aucklanders to be safe in their homes, so we strongly encourage anyone who wants an assessment to be undertaken to contact us.”
Most Auckland Council services will reopen under normal opening hours today, apart from pools and leisure centres, which will open from 8am.
Some were flooded so may need to remain closed or provide a reduced service. People are encouraged to check opening hours before leaving home.
Aucklanders are also encouraged to report any damage to council parks, community facilities or venues, beaches or maunga, roadside or public spaces.
Auckland’s tap water remains safe to drink. There are no widespread water outages or issues. However, a slip has burst a watermain in Warkworth and Watercare teams are fixing it.
Government has also approved the use of psilosybin, known as magic mushrooms.