Cyclone Gabrielle hits as heavy rain causes flooding and slips, how the severe weather is affecting our housing market and why this Valentine's day may not be all rosy in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
There is no way in or out of the Coromandel this morning due to Cyclone Gabrielle’s damage withall major arterial roads closed off.
Coromandel authorities have called the damage done to the region by the cyclone “carnage”, as the peninsula is effectively cut off from the rest of the country.
Roads in the district are left flooded by metres of water, described by Civil Defence as “absolutely impassable”, while a third of the district is without power.
Meanwhile, gale-force winds and heavy rainfall have caused major slips, surface flooding and extremely hazardous driving conditions around the East Waikato region.
Talking on Mike Hosking’s Breakfast Show, the chief executive officer of the Thames Coromandel District Council said practically every road had unconfirmed slips on it.
“It’s across the whole region, the whole district has outages in various places, slips in lots of places,” said CEO Aileen Lawrie.
Two people wade through waist-high water after abandoning their car on the road to Hahei. Photo / Matthew Davison
“Bearing in mind we came into this with totally saturated soil, it’s not surprising we have slips everywhere. But our community have been fabulous, they’ve done the right thing.”
Lawrie understands the rain just passed, which she said was a relief.
However, the wind is expected to pick up later today which concerns council staff - the calm experienced in Whitianga this morning suggested it was encountering the eye of the storm.
“We’ve had five dress rehearsals this year so [the public] all knew what to do this morning, so far I’m not aware of anybody in life-threatening or risk situations,” she said.
The short-term focus for council staff will be to re-open key network roads to get the region back connected with the rest of the country.
A release from the council on Tuesday morning told residents that reports of surface flooding are across the entire network, advising against “any unnecessary travel”.
At least 15 roads have been closed at this stage due to flood damage, teams are on standby at Koputauaki Bridge on Colville Rd in the event of any dam breach upriver of the bridge.
Tapu Coroglen Rd, 10km from Tapu, is “impassable” for the foreseeable future, and additional slips have also come down blocking the road.
The 309 Rd, which is roughly 13km from the Coromandel end, is also closed with two crews on both ends trying to get it reopened.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency contractors have been working flat out since daylight to start clearing slips to restore access to communities and have been able to open one lane on State Highway 25 (SH25) between Kopu and Thames this morning.
Across the wider Waikato there are twenty State Highway closures and 26 additional warnings about hazards on highways which signal things like trees down, surface flooding and other obstacles.
There is no way in or out of the Coromandel this morning. All major arterial roads are closed, leaving the peninsula cut off. Photo / Supplied
Flood waters are still receding in the district.
Earlier this morning, Coromandel Civil Defence controller Garry Trowler said the region had been hit with over 400mm of rain overnight, combining with the gale-force winds to effectively “shut down” the Coromandel.
“Everything that was predicted to happen, happened,” he told TVNZ’s Breakfast show.
There are no major arterial roads open at all, he said, and there is no access to the peninsula due to major slips. “The entire Coromandel is totally cut off. There’s widespread surface flooding - it is quite bad.”
About 11 cellphone sites had come down too, he said. “We’ve lost all contact with the likes of Whangamatā.”
Earlier, incredible footage of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle in the Coromandel has captured roads and entire paddocks inundated by floodwaters, houses surrounded by it and trees blocking streets.
The video, taken around Hahei and Tairua in the eastern Coromandel today, shows streams bursting their banks and swamping roads, leaving them “impassable”.
While trying to travel to Hahei, Matthew Davison recorded scenes of carnage around the district and was forced to turn back because he couldn’t get through the torrents which had submerged roads.
Flooding at Tairua on the Coromandel Peninsula. Photo / Matthew Davison
“I was just trying to get there [to Hahei] but the roads were under probably, I’d say, metres of water,” Davison told the Herald.
“There were cars abandoned on the roads - people getting out of the cars which were trapped in the water. It’s not a good situation.”
Davison said it was “impossible” for vehicles to traverse Hahei Beach Rd, the main road into the tiny settlement - even for his four-wheel drive.
“There’s a lot of flooding in Tairua. Streams have burst their banks everywhere,” he said.
“You can’t see the roads your driving on. The Tairua River has just become a huge lake of floodwater now.”
A brown, discoloured Tairua River can be seen in the video with debris such as snapped tree branches carried along by a vicious current.
Water can be seen lapping at doorsteps - while cars forded the main street through Tairua, creating wakes in the floodwater as they passed by the shops and businesses.
