As the flood waters recede, the full picture of how far and wide an area has been hit is emerging.
Contact has now been made with cut-off isolated communities, including Autohia in rural Taranaki, about an hour's drive northeast of Stratford.
Huge slips are blocking access roads, meaning no one can go in or out by car.
Nicole Byford is stranded in New Plymouth staying with friends. She didn't hear from her partner Adrian Jane or his 12-year-old son until yesterday morning.
"I hadn't heard anything but a friend of ours got a text from [Mr Jane] saying that they were all right. They'll be stuck for a few days at minimum," Miss Byford said.
"They're all right but they're running low on fuel. He's a bit of a bushman so I knew he would be all right, but I was just worried because I hadn't heard anything."
Miss Byford said about 40 or 50 families lived in the wider area, including three men from the nearby Autohia station, who were making their own way out. She and Mr Jane have lived on their 12ha section for about three months. They have solar power and no landline phone, so are reliant on cellphones.
As the roads were cleared, Miss Byford was thinking of parking somewhere and walking in if necessary.
She said even before the rain, some access roads had been affected by slips after logging activity in the area.
Back in Whanganui, the clean-up continues. The Whanganui River Top 10 Holiday Park is just over the stop-banks from Saturday night's raging torrent. It remains open for business, with some of its accommodation unaffected.
"It's not the waters that bother me, it's the silt and mud they leave behind," owner Ben Kay said yesterday.
Taranaki Civil Defence controller David Lean estimated two thousand people had been affected by flooding in the region in a negative way.
"We've established contact with everyone the we believe is affected," he said.
Civil Defence was in the process of appointing a recovery manager, and Mr Lean said it could be a matter of months before some of the roads and bridges were fixed in areas like the Waitotara Valley, where the river flooded to 14 metres above its usual level.
Despite adverse conditions and road blockages causing isolation, Mr Lean said farmers remained resilient.
"Some of them don't go to town for weeks or a month, so it's just business as usual."
Civil Defence minister Nikki Kaye is visiting flood affected areas today.
Starting in Whanganui, she will then travel to Waiotara to meet with residents at the Waitotara Hotal and Store at 10.30am.
