School evacuated, roads closed as rain continues in North

Pedestrians brave the rain in central Auckland today. Picture / Dean Purcell

A school was evacuated, roads were blocked and a water treatment plant contaminated in the top half of the North Island following more heavy rain today.

Up to 217mm of rain has fallen in parts of the North Island in the past two days, with Bay of Plenty and the East Coast suffering the most today.

Police fielded 15 reports throughout the North Island overnight of slips and flooding restricting traffic flow throughout the road network.

About 45 students and eight staff had to be hauled by tractor from Waiotahi Valley School, about 20km southwest of Opotiki in eastern Bay of Plenty, after the road over the Waiotahi River became impassable.

Principal Pat Carrington said local farmer Des Gleeson hauled the staff and students over in groups of eight for a two-minute journey on a tray connected to his tractor.

The children included two special needs students and one in a wheelchair.

"We have problems with floods every two or three years but this time the alternative road out was blocked by a slip," Mr Carrington told NZPA.

"The school is on a hill so it's all right but the access road was under water and it was potentially going to get worse in high tide this afternoon.

"As it was the entire front wheel of Des' tractor was covered in water."

Opotiki School did not open at all after water flooded the school fields.

In Tauranga, residents were told to only use water when necessary after one of the two treatment plants was put out of action.

Tauranga City Council water services manager Steve Burton said the Oropi plant was shut down because very low quality water from the Wairohi Stream was coming into the plant.

He said the dirty water could be treated in an emergency but the plant could only put out a much smaller amount and it would be costly in terms of energy and the future of the plant.

"It isn't really worth keeping it going with that poor quality water coming in while we have the other plant working fine," Mr Burton said.

"We hope the bad stuff will have been washed out of the water by tomorrow so until then people should only use water when absolutely necessary."

The small town of Te Araroa near East Cape was cut off for a time today as slips on State Highway 35 to the north and south blocked the road.

The slips cut off an ambulance crew marooned with a male patient at Te Araroa overnight. Volunteers were called in from nearby Hicks Bay, and following instructions from the man's doctor they were able to stabilise his condition but they were caught by another slip and had to wait until the slip was cleared.

Schools in the area were closed because the school buses could not get through as the area received 118mm of rain at the weekend.

Most of the flooding occurred overnight, and although water came right up to people's homes, no one needed to be evacuated, Te Araroa Civil Defence warden Jim Mill said.

Parts of State Highways 33 and 36 in Bay of Plenty were also closed today, but most had at least one lane open by this evening.

The rain had caused several problems in Northland and the Coromandel area yesterday, forcing road closures and a dramatic rescue of a family whose car was washed away near Wellsford, north of Auckland.

Met Service spokesman Bob McDavitt said up to 217mm of rain fell in parts of the Coromandel ranges and 208mm on the northern slopes of Mt Taranaki.

Whangarei Airport recorded 95mm of rain, Whitianga 138mm and Whakatane 105mm. Winds gusted up to 96km/h at Cape Reinga and Tiritiri Matangi Island, just north of Auckland.

"This rain band came from the subtropics," Mr McDavitt said. "The rainfall intensity occasionally reached 10 to 15mm per hour, and that's higher than the usual winter rain."

He said the main rain band has now moved off to the Chatham Islands.

- NZPA