Plimmerton community 'upbeat' after flooding, but there's more rain to come

The water was described as an "immovable force". Photo / Matt Wood

A community north of Wellington is "upbeat" in the wake of flash flooding that left 15 homes uninhabitable.

On Sunday, flash flooding coincided with high tide in the suburb of Plimmerton, north of Porirua, inundating homes with an "immovable force" of water.

Plimmerton resident Matthew Wood said it had been "phenomenal" to watch the community come together.

The Plimmerton community had rallied around one another, residents said. Photo / Matt Wood

"We for one were actually alerted by our neighbours, people being really proactive and trying to prevent the damage.

"The water was just an immovable force, there was very little you could do to keep it out.

"The community sprung into action the minute it was unfolding and that just continued throughout the day."

Wood had been lucky, with the flooding only causing damage to his garage, but the flooding had affected some homes to the extent they were uninhabitable.

"[They] just had three feet of water throughout the whole house, so carpets, furniture, everything," Wood said.

"And it's not clean water, it's come straight off the hill, it's contaminated. There is really significant remediation work required."

"Emergency services have largely done their work so it's just about putting things right, hopefully before Christmas."

Coninciding with a 7.1 high tide, Porirua recorded 49mm of rain between 2am and 11am, closing State Highway 1 from Plimmerton to Paekakariki and casuing traffic delays.

Residents were getting on with the cleanup while also preparing for a second deluge of heavy rain, beginning later today.

Three feet of water had swept through some Plimmerton homes. Photo / Matt Wood

Porirua mayor Anita Baker said the Plimmerton school was being used as a welfare centre and locals were helping each other clean up their homes.

She also praised the efforts of emergency services in responding quickly on Sunday.

With more rain forecast later in the week, she said it was important to think about how the community could respond to flooding in the future.

The water was described as an "immovable force". Photo / Matt Wood

"It's just about making sure in the future we don't just keep having more and more floods.

"Because we're going to have more and more rain events, so it's about how do we reduce these."

MetService forecaster Aiden Pyselman said there was a front coming across the Tasman Sea that would bring more stormy weather later in the week.

A heavy rain watch was in place for the Wellington region and Tararua Range, and winds were forecast to reach gusts up to 110km/h.