State Highway 2 between Napier to Wairoa and SH5 between Taupō and Eskdale are closed because of flooding and escalating weather warnings for the East Coast.
The head of Hawke’s Bay’s Civil Defence said flooding and widespread evacuations are unlikely amid warnings of up to 250mm of rain in the region’s hills, the most since Cyclone Gabrielle.
PanPac pulp and paper mill north of Napier evacuated its Whirinaki site as a precaution today as it expects surrounding roads may be closed because of flooding.
A lengthy orange heavy rain warning was earlier issued for Hawke’s Bay by MetService, extending from Whirinaki and Esk Valley in the north into Central Hawke’s Bay.
The rain is expected to increase again on Friday evening and stay heavy until Sunday morning.
Waka Kotahi said SH2 between Whirinaki and Wairoa would close at 5pm after heavy rain caused flooding and slips.
The road will remain closed overnight and the closures will be reassessed at first light tomorrow.
Waka Kotahi Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti system manager Martin Colditz said all parts of the network will be closely monitored.
MetService upgraded its heavy rain watch to a warning in Hawke’s Bay at 10am, warning that 63 hours of heavy rain was most likely to fall until midnight Saturday.
In addition to the rain that had already fallen in the past week, people should expect 200 to 250mm to accumulate about the Ruahine Range and Kaweka Forest Park and 100-150mm of rain about the remaining ranges, including the coastal hills of Central Hawke’s Bay.
Ian Macdonald, Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group (HBCDEM) controller, said just before 2pm that he understood people were wary of the weather and he wanted to reassure the public.
He said the emergency mobile alerts would only be used if there was a “life safety issue” and if people needed to evacuate immediately.
“Given the forecast, we don’t think that we are going to need widespread evacuations. There might be some localised ponding that may affect some areas or houses, like it does quite often when we have heavy rain in the Bay,” Macdonald said.
“It is only an orange rain warning, it is not a red warning, which is completely different.”
He said Hawke’s Bay Regional Council was monitoring rivers and had advised that rivers would stay within their channels or at worst, come to the bottom of the stopbanks.
People who had properties prone to flooding or “ponding” should be preparing themselves and travel should only be undertaken when essential, as the roading network was “fragile”.
“My advice would be to people that if they don’t need to travel over the weekend then don’t, but also I think keeping up with the weather forecast is a key thing,” he said.
MetService meteorologist John Law said the rain from a low-pressure system to the north was being pushed up against the hills, which meant Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti on the East Coast were the first places to catch the rain - and possibly thunder.
“Unfortunately it is looking like a wet few days as we go into the weekend and those easterly winds are looking quite strong as well,” Law said.
“We are probably going to get more rain than we have seen in the last three days.”
The MetService update warned of hazardous driving conditions, with slips and surface flooding possible.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s rainfall monitoring station closest to the peninsula, Kopuawhara Stream at Railway Bridge, recorded 140.5mm of rain over the past week.
Most other stations recorded between 50mm and 80mm.
Meanwhile, a downed 11kV power line on Tannery Rd in Meeanee at 5.19am affected 1153 customers, according to a Unison spokeswoman, but power was expected to be restored by midday.