Editorial: Northland dodges worst of cyclone's tail

Tangiteroria, west of Whangarei, has flooded again in heavy rain, this time after the remnants of Cyclone Debbie passed through.

The drop in humidity and departure of the tail end of tropical Cyclone Debbie will be welcomed by many Northlanders who have spent the past week not quite sure what impact it was going to have on us.

In Australia, the cyclone's impact was severe. The disaster zone stretched 1000km, from tropical resort islands off Queensland to New South Wales farms.

Six people died, including Kiwi mother Stephanie King, 43, and two of her three children, Ella-Jane, 11, and Jacob, 7. The family's van had left a Tumbulgum, New South Wales road and flipped into a river.

Here, rain and thunderstorms were forecast, in a region that holds water like a sponge, with a tendency to then overflow after a day or so of heavy rain.

And overflow it did - as today's photos show, farmland at Tangiteroria and other low lying plains near rivers has been flooded.

So far though, no loss of human life has occurred, although farmers are assessing damage to stock and land.

Northland was lucky in that respect - there were some landslides and a near miss for a logging truck driver who slid off the road into roadside bush when a heavy downpour struck on Otaika Valley Rd, State Highway 15.

Many Northlanders would have been unaware that possibly the worst thunderstorm to strike the region was Wednesday, 52km east of Whangarei at the Mokohinau Islands.

The "Mokes" are within recreational boat distance from Whangarei's east coast, but with ample warning, and inclement weather, only fools would have been in the area on Wednesday.

The islands were in the direct path of the heaviest patch of weather that floated south, missing Northland's mainland.

It may not seem so, looking at the flood pictures today, but Northland dodged a bullet when the brunt of the cyclone remnants passed down the coast.