Mangapoike Rd is one of five roads closed due to flooding. Photo / Wairoa District Council
Mangapoike Rd is one of five roads closed due to flooding. Photo / Wairoa District Council
From a drought to a deluge.
Five roads were closed due to flooding around Wairoa as heavy rain fell throughout Hawke's Bay on Tuesday.
While Northern Hawke's Bay's overflowing rivers and gutters were set to ease back overnight, persistent grey drizzle was forecast for the next four days for much of the region.
MetService said in the 24 hours to 4pm Tuesday, Wairoa recorded 95mm of rain. It was too much for some.
Mangapoike Rd was closed shortly after 9am due to flooding, as council photos showed a massive pool of water covering both lanes.
Caution was also advised on Tiniroto Rd as there was minor flooding.
MetService's heavy rain watch, which included parts of the Kaweka Range, expired at 6pm as council staff pushed hard to reopen the swamped roads.
The heavy rain watch is place for the district until 6pm. Photo / Wairoa District Council
Wairoa District Council transport asset manager Michael Hardie said inspections of roads were continuing throughout the day on Tuesday.
He said some of the closures were due to rivers rising and blocking the roads and others were due to drains/culverts not coping with the large amount of rain.
Hardie said some properties on the roads had their access impacted but at 2pm Tuesday council had not heard of any major issues to farms and properties or road crashes.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council monitors the Wairoa River and its tributaries but not the smaller rivers which are prone to flash flooding.
At 12pm Tuesday HBRC team leader engineering Craig Goodier said the amount of rainfall they had recorded was unlikely to cause serious flooding.
The Wairoa River had risen about 0.5m above normal tide level and would continue to rise slowly until morning.
"The river levels have not reached alert levels, which means they are well below the annual flood levels.
"Based on the predicted rainfall, which is still below MetService warning criteria, we do not expect any flooding from the major rivers to occur.
"While the wet weather is expected to continue through the week, the rainfall intensities are predicted to be relatively low which indicates river flooding is unlikely," he said.
A police spokeswoman said there were not any crashes or incidents relating to the weather conditions.
In Napier and Hastings, sports practices were mostly washed out. All football grounds in the twin cities were closed for training on Tuesday evening due to the heavy rain.
Rainfall was significantly less than Wairoa areas with 14.2mm in the 24 hours to 4pm in Napier and 7mm in Hastings.
It was the second heavy rain Hawke's Bay has had in a week exemplified by grey winter skies that are set to continue.
Ferris said there has been above average rainfall in the last 30 days across Hawke's Bay with 104mm recorded at Napier Airport up from the June average of 80mm.
