The autumn drenching of Hawke's Bay is showing little sign of abating with up to 30mm of rain recorded in just a few hours yesterday afternoon in northern areas.
A MetService meteorologist said last night about 30mm of rain was recorded at a Hawke's Bay Regional Council gauge at Marumaru inland from Wairoa early in the afternoon, while 6.6mm was recorded at Hawke's Bay Airport in a short but torrential downpour which caused surface flooding in the Park Island area after leaden black skies opened above Napier about 2.30pm.
The rain, which brings the airport's rainfall for the year to almost 420mm, almost 160mm more than the average for the year to date, came after three days of mainly fine weather in Hawke's Bay since the Thursday night storm which cut power to about 15,000 customers of electricity supplier Unison, and uplifted dozens of trees in Napier, Hastings and other areas.
Late yesterday, Unison expected a small number would be without electricity a fifth night in a row.
Company relationship manager Danny Gough said 10 to 20 customers in more remote areas were likely to be still without power, with over 60 having been reconnected during the day on which crews had also been working on about 200 hot water faults and low voltage issues.