Cluny Rd in Porirua was hit hard by this morning's flooding. Photo / Supplied
Cluny Rd in Porirua was hit hard by this morning's flooding. Photo / Supplied
Several homes in Plimmerton, Porirua, have been evacuated after heavy rain hit the region, closing the main road out of Wellington.
Porirua Mayor Anita Baker said work was under way to pump water out of the buildings.
An "initial welfare point" had been set up at the fire station for residents needing help, and a shuttle van was available from Moana Lodge to pick people up.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) earlier warned motorists to delay their travel after State Highway 1 was completely closed off by floodwaters between Plimmerton and Paekakariki.
Hazel Kale has some cleaning up to do after floodwater poured into her living room. Photo / Supplied
Lanes are now open in both directions, but only one lane is open northbound. Traffic remains backed up and motorists are asked to stay off the roads if possible.
Pictures from NZTA's traffic cameras show the flooding around the Plimmerton roundabout has almost receded as of 2pm.
Paekakariki Hill Rd and Grays Rd remain closed.
Members of the public took to the NZTA Twitter page on Sunday morning to warn about slow-moving traffic caused by the flooding.
By midday, Fire and Emergency NZ had received about 20 calls in relation to flooding in the Plimmerton area.
A spokesman said it was general assistance calls - "flooding on the property, flooding outside".
Hazel Kale's driveway filled up with floodwater. Photo / Supplied
He said Fenz responded to 16 calls and handed six over to the local council and police.
Akatarawa Road still open? It'd be a nightmare! Plimmerton roundabout floods too often - I guess @WakaKotahiWgtn is pretty relaxed about that, given that Transmission Gully is just a year away, but meanwhile it's pretty shameful that the capital is cut off by road to the north.
However, Best said the weather radar had "quite another dramatic feature" coming up the country tomorrow.
He said there could be "very strong, possibly severe, gales", southerly winds and rain for the lower part of the North Island and the Marlborough Sounds.
"A very cold southerly change comes up tomorrow evening and it will be quite dramatic as it moves through the capital."
One woman who lived on Airlie Rd said some of the houses backing onto Karehana Park were badly flooded, but hers had escaped the worst of it.
Her yard was flooded and the water was "not moving" because of blockages in the drainage systems in the street, but thankfully the water had not gone into her home.
Hazel Kale said the water flooded part of her living room.
She had never seen the area flood so badly in the time she had been living there, and said some of her neighbours who had lived there for 40 years told her it had never been so bad.
"The garage always floods when it rains pretty badly," she said.
She prepared her house for the rain then left to check on her parents, but when she came back the flooding was worse than she had expected.
"The water just started flowing straight down the driveway and it got quite high. It started coming into the lower parts of my house."
The water had all drained away now, but looked "impressive" at the time.
"It was probably more a shock than anything," she said.
Another nearby resident said their house was raised off the ground, so the water came underneath but did not enter the building.
It had drained away now and left a lot of mud, he said.
A woman who lived on Cluny Rd said her house was on a hill and had been spared the flooding, but she had just been helping a neighbour whose entire home was filled with water up to 40cm high.
"It's awful," she said.
Water in Cluny Rd poured down the street, into gardens, and into houses. Photo / Supplied
Another resident, Gillian Dodson, said her home had narrowly escaped the deluge.
"It was pretty dramatic, I tell you that. We were lucky, the water was two centimetres lapping from our front door, but we managed to not get flooded," she said.
