Wild weather wreaks havoc

Cohl Carrington and Finn Jefferies make their way down a flooded street in Whakatane. Photo / Troy Baker

A tornado, floods and king tides wreaked havoc across the country yesterday.

A tornado ripped through South Auckland, smashing glass, damaging roofs and tossing recycling bins around.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances in East Tamaki was worst hit when the tornado struck about 9.30am.

Call centre team leader Peter Stuart saw the sky darken before a 20m-wide twister roared across the carpark towards him.

It bounced over his building, tore off a piece of roof, then smashed windows at a goods dock on the other side of the warehouse.

"We thought the whole roof was going to come off. That's how much noise there was," said Stuart.

Elsewhere in Auckland, king tides and heavy rain threatened to cause flooding on the stretch of Northwestern Motorway between Pt Chevalier and Te Atatu.

Niwa scientist Rob Bell said higher-than-usual tides happened several times a year because the moon did not orbit Earth in a circular pattern.

Low atmospheric pressure meant tides had crept up a further 40cm, and heavy rain compounded the risk.

Blocked drains caused 20 flooding incidents in Epsom, Grey Lynn, Mt Eden and Ponsonby when heavy rain hit yesterday morning.

Auckland Council contractors cleared drains before properties were damaged.

Emergency services attended two accidents south of the Bombay Hills about 7pm caused by drivers stopping in an enormous shower of rain.

Police said drivers stopped on two stretches of road because it was too dangerous to continue. Occupants of two cars suffered minor injuries after their vehicles were hit from behind.

Heavy rain across the North Island resulted from a weather pattern from the northwest, said Weatherwatch.co.nz head analyst Philip Duncan.

"The rain band from Auckland exploded into life over the Waikato and Bay of Plenty," he said.

In Whakatane, streets were closed and the central shopping district was flooded.

Although the upper North Island bore the brunt of the weather bomb, Nelson was drenched with 23mm of rain between 1am and 5pm.

A 9-year-old boy suffering spinal injuries was taken from Murchison to Nelson Hospital by road after a rescue helicopter was unable to fly into Murchison because of poor visibility about 2.30pm.

The rain is expected to ease over the next few days, but light showers are likely in parts of the North Island because of a big low from the Tasman.

MetService public forecaster Janet Syme said Hawke's Bay would get the pick of the weather today.

Downpour day

Heavy rain drenched the country in the 24 hours to 6pm last night.

Whakatane: 75.8mm
Kerikeri: 64mm
Kaikohe: 42mm
Auckland: 43.2mm
Tauranga: 30.2mm
Nelson: 23mm

Source: MetService