Storm leaves flooded roads, trees down and landslips

Rain flooded roads, felled trees and moved hillsides in Wairarapa yesterday during the peak of a deadly storm that struck the North Island.
Yesterday morning a woman's body was pulled from a swollen river, 1.5km downstream from her home near Kawakawa, in the Bay of Islands.
Oldfields contract operations manager Tim Langley said late yesterday afternoon about 30 workers from the company were clearing roads of slippages, fallen trees and surface flooding in areas ranging from Ngawi in South Wairarapa to Ngaumu Road east of Masterton.
"Basically east of Taueru is under water and hillsides are moving at Ngawi. We've had crews out since mid-morning clearing trees near Ngaumu, a fairly major slip at Whareama and slips at Ngawi."
He said day-shift workers were to head home about 9pm last night and a second shift was to work through until about 2am today.
He said flooding and slips were threatening to close Mataikona Road as at late afternoon although other areas at that time were still open to traffic.
A Masterton motorist hit a tree across Ngaumu road while it was falling and became an early casualty of the storm that threatened roads in the district and kept emergency services busy throughout the day.
Phil Rogers, contractor to loggers Dawson and Havard Ltd, was driving his Toyota Hilux along Ngaumu Road about 5.30am yesterday, he said.
"I was going up the road and I rounded the corner and there it was; there were about four little trees from one trunk.
"One was in front of me and another fell down behind me.
"It was pitch-black and it just happened so fast," Mr Rogers said.
Gavin Wilson, crew manager of Dawson and Havard Ltd, said more trees had fallen in the same location and his workers were called to clear the road.
Mr Wilson said Mr Rogers "was either very lucky or very unlucky depending which way you look at it."
Terry Moyes, of J. and L. Cummings Treescaping, was at the crash site late yesterday felling other nearby trees also in danger of toppling on to the road.
"We're just felling the dangerous ones at this stage," Mr Moyes said.
"We've got another crew somewhere else. I think we're going to be pretty busy today."
Weather was also blamed for power cuts in Masterton and near Tinui yesterday and a fallen tree delayed early-morning Wairarapa rail commuters to the capital.
Powerco network operations manager Ross Dixon said "weather-related events" robbed power from about 700 residents in Gordon Street in Masterton and in Annedale Road near Tinui from late morning yesterday.
He said more than 10,000 customers on the Powerco North Island network lost power at various times through the day yesterday.
KiwiRail communications manager Nigel Parry said a tree blocking the Upper Hutt line halted services to and from Wairarapa for a short time from about 6am yesterday.
He said the tree was quickly cleared and services were resumed within an hour.
Rainfall in the Tinui Valley was 113.5mm in 24 hours to last night, and it lessened the further inland readings were taken, Matt Rowland, Greater Wellington Regional Council monitoring officer, said.
At Castle Hill, the Taueru catchment, 51.5mm fell in 24 hours, at Te Weraiti 34.5mm and in Masterton itself 27mm.
Mr Rowland said the lower Ruamahanga River had tripped a lower level alarm, and was expected to peak at 3.9mm last night, which is still below serious flood levels of 4.5m to 5m.
The Huangaroa River level was also expected to reach early warning flood levels overnight.
Masterton District Council chief executive Wes ten Hove said council emergency officers were to be kept on standby overnight "in case the rain worsens".
Mr ten Hove, speaking last night from the council Civil Defence room, said Mataikona Road was in immediate danger of closure because of the risk of slips during darkness. "It's pretty vulnerable there."