Heavy rain causes slips, closes roads

Torrential rain caused flooding and land slides and closed roads throughout the North Island last night, including in the Bay of Plenty, which is still recovering from devastating floods in May last year.

Whakatane police said State Highway 2 was closed at Matata, from 15km north of Whakatane to Tauranga.

There had been several reports of boulders and slips blocking roads.

"Rain is consistently heavy and we have got another warning we will be getting another 120mm overnight, which is not going to help the situation," an officer said.

According to a severe weather warning issued by the MetService yesterday, the Bay of Plenty was likely to remain "under threat" until the early hours of today.

This afternoon forecasters expect heavy rain to hit parts of Gisborne, north of Tokomaru Bay and continue until about 6am Sunday.

Thunderstorms and localised heavy falls of up to 25mm per hour were expected.

Residents were warned that surface flooding was likely and streams and rivers were likely to run "high and swift".

Further south, heavy rain was also causing chaos on roads in the central North Island.

Senior Sergeant Jerry Broughton, of the police central communications centre, said there was extensive flooding on State Highway 1 between Manakau and Levin.

In Lower Hutt, heavy rain caused surface flooding on State Highway 2 near Melling.

Extreme care was required when driving in these areas, he said.

- NZPA