Horehore Rd is among many Tairāwhiti roads and highways damaged by the latest wet weather event to strike the East Coast this year. Photo / Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Facebook
Horehore Rd is among many Tairāwhiti roads and highways damaged by the latest wet weather event to strike the East Coast this year. Photo / Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Facebook
Rain is expected to ease in weather-battered Tairāwhiti Gisborne this afternoon - but the respite will be brief, with more wet weather on the way, MetService says.
MetService has downgraded the district’s red heavy rain warning to an orange heavy rain warning. The new warning is in place until 6pm.
The forecaster said that the area can expect to see another 25-40mm of rain, mainly north of Tolaga Bay.
“Note that while these expected rainfall accumulations do not meet official short term warning criteria an Orange Warning is being maintained since significant impacts such as slips, damage to roads, falling trees and damage to infrastructure such as powerlines could still occur.”
State Highway 35 between Okitu and Ruatoria and State Highway 5 between Taupo and Eskdale have both reopened this morning.
Motorists are advised to take care while travelling along SH5 as crews on-site working to clear debris and are undertaking assessments.
State Highway 2 between Matawai and Te Karaka remains closed due to flooding and cracks in the road. State Highway 50 at Tikokino is also closed, due to washout.
Tairāwhiti Civil Defence said it was a “fairly quiet” night with no significant issues reported.
The district’s been under a local State of Emergency and had been under a MetService red heavy rain warning - the weather service’s most serious - for days, but the red-level warning ended this morning at 6am.
This morning, Uawa Civil Defence said the day is already looking “promising”.
However, the latest wet weather system won’t be the last in a region already slammed by two cyclones this year, including February’s deadly Cyclone Gabrielle, MetService meteorologist Jessie Owen said.
“Unfortunately, there’s more on the way with rain bands coming from the west … from Monday.”
Mossman Bridge on Ruakaka Rd, Tairāwhiti, collapsed in this week's heavy rain. Photo / Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Facebook
The new batch of grey clouds has one silver lining - rainfall won’t be as prolonged as last week’s.
Residents and authorities already face a big clean-up after days of rain, with gauges recording seven-day accumulations of 214.3mm at Gisborne Airport and 236mm at Tolaga Bay, MetService tweeted yesterday.
In the ranges, 479.6mm fell at Raukumara, 440.5mm at Mata Bridge and 430.8mm at Puketawa over the past week.
In Gisborne, where residents were yesterday told to cut water use amid fears the wastewater network would be overwhelmed, residents have basked in an average of just 1.1 hours of daily sunshine over the past nine days.
East Coasters’ vitamin D levels weren’t the only thing to suffer, with damage to roads and infrastructure across the district.
Waitangi Rd, Tairāwhiti, showing the impact of this week's wet weather. Photo / Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Facebook
As of late yesterday afternoon, 46 local roads and several state highways were closed, 300 households were without power and 48 people were in welfare centres.
Forty-six local roads are closed due in Tairāwhiti as a result of the ongoing wet weather. Waipiro Bay Rd, shown here, has become 4WD only. Photo / Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Facebook
SH2 between Whatatutu Rd and Matawai would remain closed possibly until Monday, Tairāwhiti Civil Defence wrote on Facebook yesterday afternoon.
“When it reopens, it will be under a convoy system to be advised ... [and] a geotech team have done an inspection of the [SH2 North’s] Otoko Hill and are on their way back in with findings.”
More information would be available about a washout in Waioeka Gorge once an inspection had been done, while Wharekopae Rd had “significant hazards” and was among those closed.
Uawa Civil Defence crews were stood down on Sunday morning to allow for members to get some rest before going back to their day jobs on Monday and as the worst of the weather had passed.
Bushy Knoll residents were yesterday cut off with no bridge access or power, while 63 households at Tauwharepare had no power and there was “no access available into some sites”, Tairāwhiti Civil Defence wrote.
“The roads are getting too dangerous for the contractors as slips and trees are coming down - [there’s a] health and safety risk while it continues to rain ... [there’s] drop outs, slumping and landslides.”
The temporary bridge on Bushy Knoll Rd is impassable - but hanging
on - Tairāwhiti Civil Defence wrote on Facebook. Photo / Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Facebook
People were advised to in general stay off fragile roads as saturated soils soaked up more rain.
“This is a slow-moving weather event. We continue to monitor rivers and are getting more reports of land movement as the ground becomes more and more saturated.”
Waipaoa River was at 6.6m and still rising as of 3pm yesterday as rain continued to fall in its catchment, but there were signs Hikuwai River was dropping after peaking at 9.6m at 10.30am.
The Waipaoa River at Te Kowhai Rd is shown running high on Saturday afternoon. Photo / Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Facebook
The incoming weather front would first affect the South Island’s West Coast - where Westland is under a orange heavy rain warning from 3pm today to midnight tomorrow.
It was then expected to cross over the North Island tomorrow, bringing more heavy rain for Tairāwhiti Gisborne, along with Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki, she said.
Weather across the rest of the country is expected to remain unsettled today.
Heavy rain watches are in place for Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty, west of Te Puke, till noon.
There will be showers, some heavy and with possible thunderstorms north of Whangaparāoa, this morning, but the wet weather would become more isolated in Auckland as the day goes on.
Wellingtonians could expect a cloudy but otherwise fine morning, while sunseekers in Christchurch face early drizzle and low cloud before fine spells, punctuated by a few spots of rain in the evening.
East Coasters face another big clean-up after another bout of heavy rain this year. Pictured is Matahiia Rd. Photo / Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Facebook
North to south, highs in our main centres today are forecast to reach 17C, 16C and 15C respectively.
Meanwhile, the fog that’s intermittently blanketed Central Otago for the past week could soon be history, Owen said.
