Relief in BOP, but floods and snow hit South Island

8.30am

The eastern Bay of Plenty, still reeling from torrential rain and flooding nearly two weeks ago, last night received some respite with predicted heavy rain falling more lightly than forecast.

But in the Nelson region, heavy rain caused flooding which closed State Highway 60 at Tasman for a time. The road between Takaka and Collingwood at Golden Bay remains closed.

Slips have been reported in Whangamoa, north of Nelson. The region recorded 38mm of rain overnight and winds reached 70kph.

Snow on State Highway 7 has also closed the Lewis Pass for towing vehicles.

However, a spokesman for the regional council Environment Bay of Plenty Bruce Fraser this morning told NZPA the night had gone "much much better than we might have expected".

He said the duty flood manager had reported rain intensity of up to 10mm an hour in the Waiweka River catchment area, near Opotiki, but no major issues.

Whakatane and Edgecumbe had received a heavy burst of rain before 4am, Mr Fraser said.

"It woke me up. I used to enjoy rain on the roof but my attitude to that has changed. But it doesn't seem to have poised any real problems."

Mr Fraser said electricity generator Trustpower had spilled off some water from their dams on the Rangitaiki River yesterday in anticipation of the predicted rain so they would have capacity to hold last night's rain.

He said river breaches which the regional council had plugged appeared to have held.

Mr Fraser said the rain last night had been heavier in the ranges than the towns, which was normal. The huge flooding on July 17 and 18 had occurred when heavy rains hit both in the ranges and on the flat.

"Either can cause flooding. It's similar to Bangladesh (where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes by flooding) -- not in scale -- that puts ours into a sense of proportion in many ways.

"But we're on a flood plain. The Rangitaiki Plains used to be a giant wetland before farmers over the years successively went about draining it. It's got a natural tendency to want to get back to that."

Last night 6.8mm of rain fell in Whakatane in the 12 hours until 7am today.

In the same period Rotorua received 13.4mm and Tauranga 2.2mm.

Mr Fraser said people would have been "very edgy last night... I know from having talked to people around the place that there was a real nervousness around town about that rain that was coming."

A MetService forecaster told NZPA this morning Whakatane was still receiving some isolated showers, but they should remain light before clearing in the morning for a fine day.

The civil defence state of emergency was yesterday extended until at least Friday with the forecast rain playing a large part in the decision.

Around 100 people are still staying at evacuation centres in the eastern Bay of Plenty with many more with friends and family as the flooding has left dozens of houses uninhabitable.

The number of people registered as evacuees swelled by 450 to 2552 yesterday.

Whakatane District Council has inspected 457 houses damaged by floods and slips, and 141 would not be able to be occupied until repaired.

- NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB