Rotorua rain and storm causes flash flood and damage: Now it's clean-up mission

Mandy Rangiwhetu's garage was flooded during the storm last night, damaging a bunch of her belongings and flooding inside her car. She is pictured with her 5yr old son Boston Rangiwhetu - Paul. Photo / Andrew Warner

Cleaning up flood damage was not the Easter weekend Mandy Rangiwhetu and her whānau had planned.

Unfortunately, that is the reality after their garage and car were flooded with water during last night's thunderstorm.

According to MetService, 39.4mm of rain fell between 8pm and 9pm, wreaking havoc in some parts of the region.

"It was really sudden," Rangiwhetu said.

Mandy Rangiwhetu's garage was flooded during the storm last night, damaging a bunch of her belongings and flooding inside her car. She is pictured with her 5yr old son Boston Rangiwhetu - Paul. Photo / Andrew Warner

"One minute it was just raining, next minute it was a real downpour for about 20 minutes. I came out and it had already gotten into our garage."

She said the water rose until it was almost knee deep.

"We literally had to get all our appliances up high, I'm hoping they're all okay but everything else was stuffed. So cleaning up that is my mission this long weekend."

Rangiwhetu said a range of the family's personal items were stored in the garage when it flooded, including clothes, shoes, furniture, gym gear, toys and a freezer.

Flooding on Bloomfied St. Photo / Supplied

"We had a TV out here but we managed to get that out. Even our courtyard became a river and there's a whole bunch of wood and debris to clean up."

Meanwhile, outside the garage, her car was filling with water.

"By the time we had a chance to try to move that it was already in there. If I open the door now there's still a pool of water in the bottom of the car."

It was not the first time the area had flooded.

"This is the second time this has happened to us. The drainage system, there's only like two soak holes, and it just can't keep up with the downpour. We're in a dip too so all the others around us are fine.

"I'm annoyed and frustrated. I've had to take the day off work to try to sort things out and my son's home sick. I've got no vehicle because my partner had to take the other one to work.

"At the moment I'm just trying to find a skip bin or some way to get rid of the rubbish."

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said Rotorua crews attended nine callouts in relation to flooding.

The weather gods put on quite a show for Rotorua residents overnight. Photo / Supplied

That included roads, houses and basements flooding, he said.

Rotorua Lakes High School was forced to close today due to a power outage suspected to have been caused by a lightning strike during the storm.

MetService meteorologist Dan Corrigan said the localised downpour was "a lot of rain" to fall in just one hour.

It was the type of rain that usually accompanies a thunderstorm and could lead to flooding, he said.

There were also 152 lightning strikes during the storm last night.

"That's certainly a lot of lightning for one region," Corrigan said.