State Highway 50 between Ongaonga and Tikokino is closed due to damage to a bridge.
State Highway 50 between Ongaonga and Tikokino is closed due to damage to a bridge.
State Highway 50 between Tikokino Rd and Bridge St in Central Hawke’s Bay remains closed due to flooding and damage to a bridge.
Waka Kotahi said bridge specialists are onsite assessing the damage. There’s a detour in place via Tikokino Road, SH2, Ongaonga Road and Bridge Street.
SH5 has re-opened between Taupō and Eskdale after closing overnight Saturday-Sunday. “Please be aware crews remain on-site at multiple locations along the road clearing debris and undertaking assessments,” a spokesperson said.
Central Hawke’s Bay District Council said on Saturday that in addition to the closure between Tikokino and Ongaonga, a number of other local roads are impacted by surface flooding including Farm Road, 400metres from Middleton Road where a tree has blocked the road.
Also closed due to flooding are Gwavas Road at Wilsons Temporary Access Bridge six kilometres from SH 50. “Currently access to the north end of Gwavas Road is through Salisbury Road in Hastings,” a spokesperson said.
Herrick Street in Ongaonga is also closed at Taylors/Mackies Slab, as is Hiranui Road, Wakarara Road is closed at Douglas Cutting Bridge and Wharetoka Road 0.8kilometres from Butler Road.
A boil water notice has also been issued for Waipukurau.
Evacuation centres were placed on standby as a precaution on Friday ahead of more heavy rain falling in Hawke’s Bay, but the region’s Civil Defence confirmed it was not expecting serious flooding this weekend and the weather “is a very different event to Gabrielle”.
Flooding and a badly damaged bridge have closed SH50 in CHB. Photo Supplied
Heavy rainfall has hit Hawke’s Bay since Thursday and a MetService orange heavy rain warning is in place until 9pm Saturday for much of the region.
A growing number of rural roads have been damaged by slips and washouts and a Central Hawke’s Bay farmer said it was placing “emotive stress on families and situations” worried about losing road access.
SH2 between Napier and Wairoa and SH5 Napier to Taupo were closed on Thursday but reopened on Friday.
Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group (HBCDEM) met with local councils and emergency services on Friday morning to plan ahead for further rain.
HBCDEM controller Ian Macdonald said they did not expect any rivers to rise above the stopbanks during the weekend.
“This is a very different event to Gabrielle. This is nothing like Gabrielle. That was a very sudden impact with huge amounts of rain.
“Basically, you had 500mm over a 12-hour period [during Cyclone Gabrielle in February] whereas we are looking at 240mm over about a three-day period.”
An approach washed out on Friday morning on Gwavas Rd, in Tikokino, Central Hawke's Bay. Photo / Grant Charteris
He said they were expecting surface flooding and roads to be disrupted.
“We are expecting similar things to happen, as happened on Thursday,” he said.
“The summary is that we can expect some disruptions, particularly to our roads.
“We will have some areas where there will be ponding and the rivers will be high ... [but] the rivers will mainly stay within their banks and channels but some of them may go into the flood plain and potentially up to what we call the toe of the stopbanks, so the bottom of the stopbanks.
“That is based on the forecast,” Macdonald said.
He said there had not been any evacuations as of Friday afternoon, and if there were any evacuations during the weekend they would likely only be “one or two houses here or there”.
“Councils have Civil Defence centres on standby to open up if we do need to evacuate people,” he said, but confirmed that was unlikely.
He said if any evacuations were to go ahead, impacted residents would most likely be notified by emergency services knocking on their door.
He said the mobile phone alert system is only used when evacuations were more widespread. He said if anyone felt unsafe they should call 111.
Waipawa River expected to rise the most
Waipawa River is expected to rise the most of the region’s rivers potentially reaching “part way up stopbanks”.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council reported 30mm to 180mm of rain fell across Hawke’s Bay in the 24 hours to 6am on Friday and the regional council was expecting a further 150mm to 200mm of rain in the ranges and 50mm to 100mm of rain in the foothills and plains, to the end of the weekend.
“We expect Wairoa, Ngaruroro and Tutaekuri river levels to rise again on the weekend, probably hover around five-year levels – bank to bank - so reaching the bottom of the stopbanks,” a regional council post read.
“We expect Waipawa [River] to be at between five-year and 20-year levels – causing the river levels to rise part way up stopbanks.”
To put the river levels in perspective, Ngaruroro River was measured at Fernhill to have a flow of around five million litres per second during the peak of Cyclone Gabrielle in February, which caused significant flooding, and reached only one million litres per second at its peak flow late on Thursday.
Ngaruroro River flows at Fernhill, just outside of Hastings. The highest spike was during Cyclone Gabrielle in February and the spike to the right was on Thursday evening. Photo / Supplied
For Waipawa River, it reached a peak of around 3.5 million litres per second at the SH2 bridge during the peak of Cyclone Gabrielle, and only 700,000 litres per second at its peak flow late on Thursday.
Emergency services ‘ready to respond’ to any significant flooding
Police responded to a minor crash on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway, between Napier and Hastings, about 11am on Friday. While there were no injuries it did cause traffic headaches around lunchtime.
Firefighters were also helping with traffic control on SH2 at Takapau on Friday morning after a car towing a boat slipped off the road due to surface flooding. No one was injured.
A police spokesperson said police were monitoring rivers and wetlands along with Hawke’s Bay Emergency Management personnel.
“Police are out and are visible and ready to respond to any calls for service regarding weather events.
“Police ask everyone to drive to the conditions. The roads are wet and there is surface flooding in some areas, so if you can delay any travel please do so.”
MetService’s heavy rain warning remains in place until Saturday 9pm
An orange heavy rain warning (the highest warning being red) remains in place across much of Hawke’s Bay until 9pm on Saturday, covering the region south of SH5.
“Heavy rain may cause streams and rivers to rise rapidly. Surface flooding and slips are also possible and driving conditions may be hazardous,” the warning read.
Flooding on Puketitiri Rd, near Puketapu on Thursday afternoon. Photo / Paul Taylor
A heavy rain watch - effectively one notch down from a heavy rain warning - is in place for the rest of Hawke’s Bay north of SH5 such as Wairoa also until 9pm Saturday.
Further up the coast, Gisborne is in a state of emergency and MetService has a red heavy rain warning in place for that district until noon Sunday.
‘Really starts to put emotive stress on families’
A growing list of rural roads in Hawke’s Bay have been closed and damaged as a result of this week’s downpours.
Central Hawke’s Bay deer farmer Grant Charteris said their road, Gwavas Rd in Tikokino, was badly damaged during Cyclone Gabrielle in February.
Work was done to cut a temporary road down to an old bridge which, on Friday morning, had its approach washed out during the latest heavy downpours.
“It is a massive step backwards,” Charteris said, of again losing access to that road.
“Our only access out [now] is Salisbury Rd and that is marginal when you get weather like this.”
He said when you lose road access and get isolated it takes a toll on people’s wellbeing.
“You take away the ability for people to get anywhere and for your kids to do things and that is when it really starts to put emotive stress on families and situations.”
He said he would have liked to have seen an original culvert - destroyed on Gwavas Rd during Cyclone Gabrielle - fixed by now.
Sports events cancelled
Plenty of sporting events have been postponed because of the weather heading into the weekend including football, netball, and the highly-anticipated Super 8 first XV rugby match in Napier between Napier Boys’ High School and Hamilton Boys High School. The Hastings Boys’ High School first XV match is also off.
Napier Boys’ principal Jarred Williams said the closure of State Highway 5 between Taupo and Napier forced the cancellation.
If you want a sports fix, the Taylor Hawks crucial home match in the National Basketball League against Otago Nuggets is at the Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale at 7pm on Saturday.
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.
