KEY POINTS:
Parts of the upper North Island battered relentlessly by heavy rain yesterday escaped serious damage.
Heavy rain warnings were issued for Northland, Auckland, Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty, but there was no repeat of the devastation caused by the storm three weeks ago.
The front responsible for
the soaking was last night heading towards the South Island. MetService severe weather forecaster Erick Brenstrum said heavy rain warnings had been issued for today for eastern Otago and Canterbury.
In the north, he said, the weather would improve today with showers and fine periods predicted for most areas over the next few days.
FAR NORTH AND NORTHLAND
Substantial rainfall fell in bursts and strong winds blew in some places on Saturday night and early yesterday, leading to some localised surface flooding.
Whangarei District Council said slips were reported on the Ngunguru road and near Waipu but no roads had closed and the council's emergency centre was not activated.
"There's been surface flooding but it's a standard wet weather situation," spokeswoman Ann Midson said.
Northland Regional Council hazard team leader Graeme MacDonald said 50mm to 70mm of rain had been spread across the region from Saturday night to yesterday morning.
Whangarei had seen three hours of rain falling at 8mm an hour early yesterday.
"It [the front] went through pretty quickly much as predicted."
In the Far North, the town of Kaeo - deluged with 273mm of rain in the earlier storm and still cleaning up - escaped flooding this time.
"The river came up but there were no problems and we had no callouts. We cancelled all the fires," joked fire chief Lindsay Murray.
Transit Northland area manager Richard Green reported minor flooding on State Highway 10 south of Mangonui but all highways remained open in the region.
Several trees had fallen but these were quickly cleared, he said.
Rainfall totals from regional council hydrologist Dale Hansen showed 30mm an hour fell at one stage early yesterday on the northern side of the Mangamuka Hills, south of Kaitaia.
On Northland's east coast, Oakura recorded 64mm, while Whangarei had 43mm and Glenbervie Hills, east of the city, copped 78mm.
Near Kaikohe in the mid-North, Mangakahia and Ohaeawai both recorded 40mm, while Kerikeri's western hills got 35mm. On the west coast, Dargaville recorded 26mm.
AUCKLAND
Around 50mm to 60mm of rain fell from just before dawn to around midday.
Fire Service northern communications centre shift manager Scott Osmond said about 20 weather-related calls were received between Whangarei and South Auckland.
"A couple of roofs lost some tiles and there was some surface flooding in the eastern suburbs of Auckland, but it was only minor and there was no significant damage that we know about."
Some roads in the neighbouring suburbs of Glen Innes and St Johns were flooded, including Felton Mathew Ave and Apirana Ave, partly because of blocked drains, but Inspector Ian Brooker of the police northern communications centre said damage was minor.
Travel on several Auckland roads, including motorways, was difficult due to heavy rain and surface flooding yesterday morning but damage appeared to be limited.
COROMANDEL AND BAY OF PLENTY
Whitianga recorded 66mm of rain from around 6am to 5.30pm, but 50mm of that fell in only five hours.
The Bay of Plenty had 60mm over several hours from around 9am and the Coromandel Ranges more than 100mm of rain over several hours from about 6am yesterday.
Despite heavy rain in the Coromandel, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, the Fire Service attended only two callouts in the afternoon.
One was a tree down at Cooks Beach, Coromandel, and in Rotorua a roof lifted off a new house at Lake Rotoma.
