“The decision to seek an emergency declaration was made in consultation with stakeholders and elected officials as a precautionary step ahead of the anticipated weather Tuesday afternoon and evening.
“The reason for doing it was to enable the use of the emergency powers to protect life and property which are available under the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Act 2002.
“As it eventuated, these powers were not required and there is no need for the emergency declaration to continue.”
MacDonald said the events leading up to the SOE had been one of the biggest exercises in advance preparation he could recall in Northland.
“I wish to thank everyone across the region who made preparations and took precautions for Tuesday’s event, especially our partner agencies, iwi, and community groups.”
Far North Kahika (Mayor) Moko Tepania said he was incredibly relieved the Far North did not receive the heavy rain predicted for the region.
He said apart from a few fallen trees and some power outages, the Far North had come through the weather event relatively unscathed.
“I woke up so happy to see the sun was out and not widespread devastation as we have seen in other regions,” Tepania said.
“There will still be a massive clean-up bill to go with this, but at least nothing worse has happened.
“This was the first time ever for our region to go into a red warning for heavy rainfall and going into a state of emergency wasn’t a decision made lightly, there were a lot of people involved in making that call.”
After only a few months in the role, Tepania said the experience had been a huge learning curve and he had a newfound appreciation for the civil defence and inter-agency staff working to keep people safe.
“After seeing what happened in Auckland, it does make you more anxious as to how you will respond to a similar event in your own backyard,” Tepania said.
“I was blown away by the amazing preparedness I saw from all of those different agencies, which brought so much comfort.
“I want to thank the people of the Far North for taking things seriously, for engaging with communications and for being prepared which will make us all the more ready for the next storm event.”
While Civil Defence Northland did not advise any school closures, a number of schools in Kaitaia and surrounds remained closed yesterday as a precaution.
Residents of Kaitaia’s Claud Switzer Residential Care home were also prepared to evacuate Tuesday night, with board chairman John Carter confirming they had been ready to act should the need arise.
“No one was taken out of Claud Switzer, but we prepared to evacuate which was sensible with the threat of the river flooding,” Carter said.
“As it turned out, none of that happened, but we made sure to have alternative accommodation ready at Kaitaia College and buses ready to take action.
“It’s one of those things that you don’t want to be caught out with and I’m pleased the staff were well ahead of time just in case.”
According to a Fire and Emergency NZ spokesperson, a total of six callouts were received across the Far North between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, involving fallen trees and powerlines in Haruru, Russell and Herekino.
There was also an incident with a person trapped in floodwaters at Ahipara.
Hato Hone St John had also increased the number of ambulance crews available in Kaitaia on Tuesday and deployed its major incident support team with additional medical supplies and resources.
For the 24-hour period to midnight Tuesday, Hato Hone St John district operations manager Te Tai Tokerau, Ben Lockie, said the service had responded to 20 callouts in the Far North.
“There were a small number of callouts in the early hours of the morning and only one response overnight that proved challenging due to the adverse weather conditions,” Lockie said.
“We are now scaling back some of the additional resources that we put in place in preparation for the adverse weather, but are maintaining a state of readiness should we need to re-escalate our response for any reason.
“The additional 4WD vehicles that were brought into the district and existing arrangements with external recovery providers will also remain in place.”
National roading agency Waka Kotahi said State Highway 1 between Waipū and Brynderwyn remained closed yesterday morning, with caution required on SH10 just south of Totara North Rd due to an underslip. A temporary speed restriction was put in place in the area.
According to the Far North District Council, there were also a number of local road closures yesterday morning, but all roads were expected to be reopened by Wednesday afternoon.
MetService meteorologist Andrew James said Tuesday night to Wednesday morning had 60mm of rain at Kerikeri and 43.6mm at Kaitaia - much less than the anticipated 140-220mm predicted.
Looking to the weekend, James said moist northerlies would continue to bring more damp air down from the tropics, with on-and-off showers right through and into the weekend.
“A band of rain crosses the region on Thursday night and into the hours of Friday morning, and this could be heavy for a while,” James said.
“Another band crosses on Sunday night, ahead of a cooler southwest change for Waitangi Day.
“These types of lows from the north have always been an issue for upper parts of the North Island, and the current La Nina makes them more likely.”
James said climate change and warmer sea and air temperatures had likely increased the intensity of rainfall, however specific event-based studies needed to be done to find out how much of an impact climate change had played this time.
“The research shows with our warming climate, higher-intensity rainfall events are more likely,” he said.
“Having said that, this is an exceptional event with records broken already.
“People should stay up to date with the latest official information from local council and emergency management, as well as any forecasts and warnings from MetService.”
At around 3pm on Tuesday, more than 1000 households in the Far North were without power.
By 9am yesterday, that had dropped to 113 households in the Waimā-Taheke area west of Kaikohe and fewer than 10 in Herekino.
Lines company Top Energy expected to have the power restored in those areas by 2pm yesterday.
