Rain closes roads, swamps Coromandel townships

Heavy rain on Coromandel Peninsula caused landslips, flooding and road closures yesterday and forced the occupants of at least two homes to leave for higher ground.

MetService forecaster Andy Downs said 76mm of rain had fallen in the 24 hours to yesterday afternoon.

With predictions of up to 90mm, residents of two Moana Pt homes near Whangamata moved out, fearing rising floodwaters.

Overnight, the Fire Service received 13 reports of streets and homes being flooded in the Tauranga and Mt Maunganui area.

At 4.00am, police were informed of a large slip, with a tree down, completely blocking State Highway 2. The slip was at Matata, between Tauranga and Whakatane.

Police received an additional 8 calls, with several people reporting their cars as being almost completely covered in water.

However, no one was reported as needing to be evacuated from their homes.

Thames Coromandel District Council spokesman Peter Hazael yesterday said the localised nature of the downpours, combined with rain coming off the ranges and a high tide, had caused surface flooding.

The northern end of Whitianga was blocked throughout yesterday morning with bridge access opening for 4WDs only just before lunchtime.

In Pauanui a broken waterpipe contributed to problems that left the township completely isolated.

Landslides closed the Kopu-Hikuai Rd and State Highway 25 between Whangamata and the Hikuai junction for much of the day.

Flooding also closed the road between Whitianga and Tairua, and Hikuai and Tairua.

In Whangamata firefighters and police were busy dealing with surface flooding.

At one stage firefighters struggled to keep up with the number of callouts, some of which involved pumping out garages and basements.

MetService said another band of heavy rain might hit the Coromandel tomorrow with a possibility of more on Sunday.

Auckland looked likely to remain wet for the rest of the week.