It's not over yet - February rain continues in Hawke's Bay

Ominous signs looking towards the Glengarry-Te Pohue area in the distance, where rainfall of between 175 and 210mm was recorded in the last week. Photo / Warren Buckland

Pockets of Central and Northern Hawke's Bay were without electricity overnight after Sunday gales and heavy weekend rain.

Centralines operations manager Wayne Withey said there were several outages in its Central Hawke's Bay area yesterday, including one which affected over 900 customers for varying times from just before 1pm to after 5pm.

With crews and system ensuring supply was quickly restored to most, road closures were among problems later in the day, restricting access to some areas, leaving some in the Pourerere area without electricity overnight. With better access, crew were able to carry out further repairs today.

Some Mahia Peninsula customers were also without electricity on Sunday night, according to Gisborne-based electricity supplier Eastland Network

A spokesperson said high winds caused power outages for around 600 customers in outlying areas throughout its network.

"Our teams repaired most faults but, due to the damage, around 80 customers were off overnight, including a few in Mahia Peninsula," the spokesperson said.

Again, crews were continuing repairs today.

In Hastings, Unison Network customer relations manager Danny Gough, whose Hawke's Bay area extends from south of Otane to north of Waikare, and west to Puketitiri and Tarawera, customer relations manager said most customers affected by outages on Sunday, including more than 400 after treefall brought lines down in the Bridge Pa area just west of Hastings, had had electricity restored by nightfall.

Gales which caused many of the outages on Sunday, had today receded, but the wet weather, covering much of the last fortnight, was producing some rare statistics.

Gales belted many parts of Hawke's Bay at the weekend. Photo Ian Cooper

Daily weather figures published by Hawke's Bay Today show that by 6pm Sunday rainfall at Hawke's Bay Airport, north of Napier, had reached 225mm this month, almost three-and-a-half times the February average.

In the last week, more than 200mm of rain had been recorded in the last week at six of the sites on the Hawke's Bay Regional Councils recording stations network, mainly in the mountain areas.

Most in the region, from Te Urewera in the north to Porangahau in the south, had recorded over 100mm, in some cases for the second weekr in a row.

The figures included 211mm at Te Pohue, 201mm at Waipatiki, 189mm at Waimarama, 156.2mm at Kotemaori, 125.8mm at Crownthorpe, 119mm in the Napier CBD, and 100mm at Bridge Pa.

Showers and fresh southerlies were expected throughout today and tomorrow, with improved weather on Wednesday, with forecasts of peak temperatures in Napier-Hastings of about 28deg towards Friday, and a mainly fine weekend.