West coast gets the worst of weekend weather

Dark clouds hang over the region.

A storm predicted to hit Northland over the weekend caused plenty of minor problems for police and emergency services, but little serious damage.

As predicted, the west coast bore the brunt of the storm that saw high winds, thunder and lightening lash the region on Saturday evening and into yesterday.

Whangarei police Acting Senior Sergeant Stephanie Hudson said at 11pm on Saturday she made two requests for assistance from other services with five trees blocking roads in Whangarei.

Trees were down on State Highway 1 at Otaika, two across Mangakahia Rd, one at Pipiwai Rd and one across SH12 at Matakohe. The trees were quickly dispatched to allow traffic to move.

Ms Hudson said there were plenty of minor problems caused by the foul weather, including temporary traffic lights on Rewa Rewa Rd being blown down.

The low pressure combined with high tide, rain and wind saw water cover the road at Tokatoka, about 18km south-east of Dargaville while in the Far North power was cut to about 3500 people until yesterday morning, she said.

Ms Hudson said at one stage Rawene Hospital was down to generator power and the Hokianga seemed to get the worst of the weather with multiple trees down across the area.

Kaitaia recorded the second strongest wind reading on Saturday night at 94km/h, behind only Lyttelton at 100km/h, with Whangarei recording winds of 70km/h plus.

Kerikeri recorded the highest rainfall in the country on Saturday night at 33mm, with Whangarei second with 20.4mm.