The pedestrian bridge that leads to the Karangahake Rail Tunnel above the Ohinemuri River, usually 20m below. Photo / Paeroa Towing Services
”Currently we can drive about a 3km stretch of road in the middle of the gorge but no further. It’s like being stranded on an island.”
“The weather has been pretty crazy. On Sunday night it was quite scary as the winds were so fierce. My parents, who are both in their 70s, have told me they have never experienced such strong wind gusts in their lives.
“But we are all safe which is all that matters.”
Saunders said water had been lapping across the road like “big waves rolling into shore at a beach.
”There has also been a massive slip over part of the loop walking track on the other side of the river.”
The Karangahake Gorge. Photo / Anita Saunders
A Karangahake Gorge resident, who asked not to be identified, said: “The Gorge river is the highest it’s ever been since we moved here six years ago.”
The resident said she had been told the height of the flooded river at 12.30am today was 17.1m.
In floods in 1981, the river reached 18.66m.
”We’ve had five power cuts in the last couple of days, but we are doing okay as we have a little gas cooker and fortunately there wasn’t another big slip in the same area as last big storm.
“The council contractors were out working in the Gorge last night.”
The resident said the Gorge was closed on Monday night from 10pm and the water was lapping right across the highway especially down in the Waikino area.
A slip can be seen above a swollen Ohinemuri River. Photo / Paeroa Towing Services
Cyclone Gabrielle has left a path of destruction across the north island, including Auckland, Northland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay and big swathes of the Coromandel Peninsula and the East Coast were also hit hard.
Earlier on Tuesday, Coromandel Civil Defence controller Garry Trowler said his region had been hit with more than 400mm of rain overnight, and along with the impacts from the fierce gale-force winds, the Coromandel Peninsula had been effectively “cut off “ from the rest of the country.
There was wide-spread surface flooding, trees blocking streets, swamped paddocks, houses surrounded by flood waters and all 11 cell phone sites had come down, with 14 blockages on state highways in the Thames-Coromandel district, he earlier said.
Meanwhile, a third of the district woke to find they were still without power.
The MetService issued an orange strong wind warning for the Coromandel which remains in force until at least midnight on Tuesday.
