Far North mops up after storm

Matapouri Bay river overflowing during the weekend storm. Photo / Shani

The Far North is in clean-up mode today following a wet and windy weekend.

Farmers have fences to fix and some pasture is still under water.

Federated Farmers Far North president Denis Anderson said although there was still water on some fields, the amount of pasture lost to water damage would be minimal.

"It comes at the wrong time of the year, though., with cows starting to calf. There will be the odd calf lost in the system of cold and wet weather," Mr Anderson said.

Far North District Council Civil Defence coordinator Bill Hutchinson said council staff were still travelling around the district checking roads but said the district "got off lightly".

He said there were some minor slips and damage to some trees.

"For the last three Julys we've had two storms come through," Mr Hutchinson said.

He said the council was working with small Far North communities to get them to be more self-reliant and have emergency plans in place.

Mr Hutchinson said that was important because the emergency service response could take some time if the entire region was hit by a disaster.

"Northland is prone to flooding and when it happens a community can be isolated," he said.

More than 18,000 people were left without electricity and firefighters were inundated with calls about fallen trees and lifted roofs after the storm hit on Friday night from Northland to the Waikato region.

Trees brought down power lines in the Far North and fell on to roads, said the Fire Service.

In all, firefighters responded to more than 100 weather-related calls, including roofs lifted from homes in Kerikeri, Mangawhai, Snells Beach and on Waiheke Island and a carport entangled in power lines in Whangaripo, near Matakana.

Top Energy general manager of networks Keith Gilby described the weather conditions as "appalling" yesterday.

He said at the height of the poor weather, 12,000 homes and businesses were without power.

Mr Gilby said trees in remote areas had come down on top of power lines and in some cases workers had to cut their way into bush with chainsaws.

Phone lines were also cut during the storm and "wire snaps" at 175 Northland homes could take several days to repair, a Telecom spokesman said.

The weather also caused problems on the roads with part of State Highway 10 in the Far North collapsing under the weight of a major landslide.

Police were alerted to the slip when a truck nearly rolled off the road about 6am today, Senior Sergeant Shane Mulcahy of northern police communications told NZPA yesterday.