Floods cut roads, strand motorists

The usually shallow Ohinemuri River surges under a bridge in the Karangahake Gorge. Picture / Amos Chapple

The heavy rain that lashed the eastern North Island from Auckland to Tauranga yesterday left widespread floods and damage.

Slips made several houses uninhabitable, and several hundred people were cut off in Pauanui by floods.

Firefighters in Hahei, where 175mm of rain fell in 24 hours, spent most of the day pumping wastewater from the town's sewage ponds, which had been breached by rising streams.

Thames-Coromandel District Council spokesman Peter Hazael said a dozen major slips around Hahei were potentially disastrous for some home-owners.

"There are three houses - all holiday homes - which we have declared off-limits until the damage can be assessed by an engineer."

He said it was not known if the houses would be condemned, but some had suffered "quite serious damage".

In Auckland, the North Shore suburbs of Glenfield and Red Beach were hard hit, with flooding and callouts to firefighters.

In Whangamata, a direct lightning strike blew out the main switchboard at James Street School.

Fire Service spokesman Jaron Phillips said firefighters across the northern North Island dealt with "flooded houses, garages and basements, slips, powerlines down on houses, and leaky roofs".

By daybreak yesterday the normally shallow Ohinemuri River - which runs through the Karangahake Gorge between Paeroa and Waihi - had turned into a torrent.

Large boulders and tree trunks were ripped from their foundations. Off the main road a swollen waterfall had cut through a sturdy road barrier, twisting it into a mangled wreck.

Back on State Highway 26, many sections of the road were badly damaged and contractors worked to clear slips and debris all morning.

Some stranded motorists had to be helped to safety, said Senior Sergeant Brian Millar of the Waihi police. The first calls for help came at 4am, and the road was closed until just before midday.

Transit New Zealand's regional manager Chris Allen said the Karangahake Gorge reopened at midday but extreme caution was still required.

"Most of the seal has lifted off."

One driver had to be rescued from her car after she entered the gorge from a side road, unaware it was flooded.

State Highway 25 between Hikuai and Whangamata was closed at 11am and remained impassable until last night, and surface flooding tore off seal on State Highway 26 at Te Aroha.

Mr Allen said the road closures had wreaked havoc with the travel plans of thousands of people.

"Between 50,000 and 60,000 people are expected at this weekend's Beach Hop festival in Whangamata, so there's a bit of a backlog in places."

As the water in the gorge receded, locals gathered on the roadside to look and reminisce about the 1981 flood.

"It's not as bad as that," said deer farmer John Avery, sitting on his quad bike. "But it is pretty bad. We had about 150mm last night."

"It's ironic because they've just had a celebration that marked the 25th anniversary of the last floods, which took out a whole series of buildings on the other side of the river."

Down the road, Waikino property owner Keith Sutton said the thunder and lightning began around 11pm on Thursday and continued until about 8am.

"The thunder was so loud it was like being at a rock concert - when it boomed it just rattled your lungs inside your chest."

The water took out the farm race of John and Helen Wilson. Mrs Wilson was philosophical, saying downpours such as this were a normal part of living on the Coromandel.

There was also extensive flooding across the Hauraki Plains. Roads between Paeroa and Te Aroha, Paeroa and Kopu, Kopu and Hikuai, Waihi and Whangamata, and Whangamata and Hikuai were all closed for varying periods during the morning.

North of Auckland, torrential rain on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula caused thousands of dollars of damage for many residents, whose basements flooded while they slept.

Red Beach property owners Peter and Shirley Boyd woke to find water 150mm deep throughout their garage.

"The drains in the park and in the streets all got blocked," Mr Boyd said. "We've got a big culvert behind our place which was overflowing up to the back fence, it had nowhere to go. We were lucky though - the other side of the road was worse."

The Fire Service helped to mop up water that had lapped around the Boyds' two fridges, and their freezer, washing machine and electric organ.

"I managed to save my power tools," Mr Boyd said.

He estimated there was around $5000 of damage.

- Additional reporting: NZPA 


Heavy falls - more to come

Metservice forecaster Bob Lake said the heaviest falls were at Golden Cross, 16km northwest of Waihi, where 204mm fell in 24 hours - most in the six hours to 7am yesterday.

Te Aroha recorded 101mm, and Paeroa 158mm in the 24 hours until 9am.

A heavy weather watch remains in place for Coromandel for today, with falls of 25-40mm predicted.

"This could cause more localised surface flooding and some flash flooding," Mr Lake said.

Northland is also under a heavy rain warning, with bands of heavy showers and thunderstorms likely.

Tauranga was last night expecting thunder and up to 50mm of rain.

- NZPA