Kaponga farmers clean up after storm blows through

Clean-up continues on Kaponga dairy farmer Shelley Pope's property after overnight storms. Photo / Supplied - Shelley Pope

By Sally Murphy of RNZ

Farmers are being hard hit by thunderstorms and stormy weather that is battering parts of the country.

Thunderstorms in the lower North Island have brought lightning, strong wind, downpours and some power cuts.

Kaponga dairy farmer Shelley Pope said it had been a rough night.

"About 3 am this morning the wind got up and there was a hell of a lot of rain, and then about half-past four I could hear it roaring and I got up to have a look, there was lightning around everywhere.

"My sharemilkers were outside picking things up when the roof of their house came off, so yeah it's a bit of a mess."

She said about a quarter of the roof came off and another half was close to blowing away.

"We had about 32 millimetres of rain overnight but we're pretty high up so we don't really flood, but there's a few trees down."

Jono Ardern, who also farms in Kaponga, said stormy weather had been smashing his farm for hours.

"There was heavy hail and wind all night, it's very wet.

"The farm is flooded, it's underwater."

Ardern said he has a few trees down but no major damage and he is been focusing on moving stock out of flooded paddocks to feeding pads.

He said the forecast for the next four days is bad, so he will be monitoring the situation closely.

- RNZ