Power restored to most of East Coast

Most of the East Coast residents who had their electricity knocked out by heavy flooding have had their power restored as weather conditions ease in the Gisborne area

Downpours cut power to dozens of people in the Gisborne area yesterday, with surface flooding affecting power poles and substations, Gisborne Civil Defence controller Jon Davies said.

Eastland Network manager Brent Stewart said they had this afternoon restored power to residents in Te Araroa, Waikura Valley and Mata Road and only a few homes remained out of power.

Mr Davies said that engineers were today working to restore access to seven people in inland Ruatoria left isolated after the Mata River washed away their road. The families were safe and still had access to power and telephone communications.

Considering the volume of rain received throughout the district, which was the highest for some years, Mr Davies said the region had got away lightly.

Since midnight on Sunday, several parts of the region received more than 300mm of rain, with 140mm at Matawai and about 120mm in the city.

"All rivers in the district were up to alert level and threatened to flood over roads but did not quite do so," Mr Davies said.

"The whole area is saturated with a number of slips and slumps. Surface flooding will continue for a few days so extreme caution is required on the roads," Mr Davies said.

"We expect to see the full extent of the damage over the next day as people start to go outside again and discover slips and the like around their properties."

He said the worst appeared to be over for the region, with the heavy rain warning being lifted for all but the southern hills of the district where a further 40mm to 60mm are expected to midnight tonight.

In Hawke's Bay, State Highway 2 was closed between Napier and Wairoa as contractors worked to clear extensive slips and flooding, but there had been few reports of property damage.

Rain there was expected to ease today, although a further 100mm was still possible for some areas.

Metservice advised motorists to drive with caution due to surface flooding and to keep up to date with the latest forecasts.

- NZPA