Cyclone Cook: Drone footage shows extent of flooding damage in Waikato

Drone-captured footage has revealed the extent of flooding damage in the Waikato following Cyclone Cook.

Nik Given took the footage of his and neighbouring properties in Te Aroha, showing the destruction caused by the storm that has made its way down the country.

He said he lives on the western side of the river in Te Aroha.

"The footage was taken from my place. We had a pretty busy night with water coming in that shouldn't be coming in."

Given said when he went to bed about 11pm on Thursday it was raining hard, and then he was awakened by his partner when she noticed their property had flooded.

"[She] said 'you'd better come and have a look at this' so I went outside and sure enough my workshop flooded and all under the house. Thankfully our house is quite high on stilts.

He said the extent of the flooding was "pretty bad".

"We had a guy here from the council this morning doing a survey of the water levels and it's the highest it's been since 1976."

Given said the drone went up about one kilometre from his house, and from the footage he could see shops and low-lying subdivisions that "are fairly flooded".

"I wouldn't say too many homes got evacuated but I'd say they're not far away now. The tide is starting to go out and it has gone down possibly two inches but of course we do have more rain coming this evening.

"It won't take much more rain ... and there'll be quite a few homes up for evacuation I would say."

He had spoken to his neighbours, and said the mood of those affected by floodwaters remained high despite the downpours.

"The general mood is not too bad, we've got good neighbours here.

"The fire department came down at 2am and helped me move my stock off my property and got them up to high ground ... it's a small town community, everyone's pretty relaxed and helps one another out, as you do."