Promising forecast for Wairoa after dodging brunt of Cyclone Fili

Wairoa River mouth on Wednesday during heavy rain. Photo / Neil Reid

An Easter forecast of mainly fine weather around Wairoa will be welcomed by the community in northern Hawke's Bay - which breathed a collective sigh of relief this week after avoiding the full brunt of Cyclone Fili.

Wairoa was forecast to be battered by up to 350mm of rain on Wednesday and the early hours of Thursday, but fortunately, did not receive anywhere near that amount of rainfall.

MetService reported a comparatively modest 96.4mm of rain fell at Wairoa Airport, where it collects rain data, on Wednesday.

Despite dodging the brunt of the cyclone, the district is still reeling from relentless rain in late March, and the latest downpour this week has only caused further issues for the recovery effort.

A contractor reported it was busy fixing up roads around the region on Thursday.

Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management group manager Ian Macdonald said fortunately, there were no evacuations in the region this week resulting from the ex-tropical cyclone.

"We were quite lucky that it went a bit further east [than initially forecast]," Macdonald said.

"We definitely did not get the full amount of rain that was forecast.

"I think the worst we got was around about 136mm around Morere, just past Mahia."

Wairoa River mouth on Wednesday during heavy rain. Photo / Neil Reid

Macdonald said while it was far less rainfall than expected this week, plenty of farms and other properties had a lot of recovery work ahead in Wairoa following the amount of rain in recent weeks.

Macdonald also reported there had been some power outages around Wairoa, which were being fixed up as of Thursday morning.

SH38 at Frasertown north of Wairoa also closed for a period on Wednesday due to flooding.

All severe weather warning and watches in relation to Cyclone Fili had been lifted by MetService as of Thursday morning, and the cyclone was headed southeast away from New Zealand.

Meanwhile, the forecast for the long weekend is mainly fine for Wairoa district, with a high of 22C on Saturday and possible showers on Sunday.

The rest of Hawke's Bay has a similar forecast with mainly fine conditions over the long weekend and possible showers on Sunday, according to MetService.

Gisborne was even harder hit this week by the ex-tropical cyclone, with more severe flooding.