Weather: Storm's fury - Evacuations across top of South Island, flooding in Far North

STORM LATEST
* A state of emergency remains in force for Nelson-Tasman and Westland;
* Emergency Management Minister to assess damage today;
* More than 300 homes evacuated;
* Defence personnel patrolled streets overnight in Nelson;
* Storm strikes Auckland - yacht sinks; Far North cut off by slips

The Maitai River is rising again and hundreds remain forced from their homes in Nelson and Buller as a super-charged deluge continues to swamp parts of New Zealand. Rivers are breaching banks, roads are closed and strong winds are downing trees.

The tropically fuelled storm, which has seen dumped more than 300mm of rain in parts of the South Island since midnight yesterday, is now wreaking havoc at the top of the country, where toppled trees are blocking major roads and rivers are beginning to breach banks.

Much of the North Island, including Auckland, is under a swathe of strong wind and heavy rain warnings. Fierce conditions are not expected to let up until tomorrow.

Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty is in flood-hit Nelson today as large sections of the city remain under water.

Speaking to media, McAnulty praised the number of people who were looking out for the safety of others in Nelson.

He said most West Coast rivers were starting to drop.

There was, however, concern for a rural community in Marlborough which could become isolated but provisions were being put in place to support them if that were to happen, including an ambulance.

Three hundred and eight houses in Nelson have been evacuated, largely due to flooding.

McAnulty announced a $200,000 contribution to the mayoral relief fund across the Nelson/Tasman region.

"There is damage to property, there is damage to many areas of the city, that this mayoral relief fund can assist with," he said.

McAnulty said today's relief fund was an initial contribution and as the welfare and community need became clearer they would "reassess" the need.

"We have confidence that was the appropriate amount," McAnulty said of the fund.

McAnulty said he witnessed a slip while driving around the area, saying: "It's like you were pouring yoghurt out of a container."

He said that was an image that has stuck with him.

MP for West Coast-Tasman Damien O'Connor said while it was inconvenient for many people to evacuate their homes, they were safe.

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Nelson mayor Rachel Reese said there were two issues they were dealing with. They are the "solid" ongoing rain as well as the evacuations and housing issue.

On the emergency management, Reese said this was a significant event for the region and the preparation for the event was "sound".

"It's going to be a long haul and I think we need to prepare ourselves for that now," she said.

There would be homes that would be uninhabitable which would be challenging for families, she said.

The degree of instability I'm seeing in some of the hillsides was concerning, she said.

That meant there was the potential for more slips, she said.

"We are going [to have to] work together over the long haul to put this city right," Reese said.

She said the recovery would not take place over months but years.

Civil Defence Controller Alec Louverdis said he was hoping authorities would have completed all of the assessments by tomorrow.

He said there was a lot of intel, including from MetService, and all indications were that the coming rain was not going to be as drastic as it had been However, he knew to "expect the unexpected."

Louverdis said his message to those in Nelson was to stay in home and off the roads.
"Stay off the roads, do not go out if you don't need to...work from home if you need to,"

He said they believed this event was somewhere between a one in 80 and one in 100-year event.

Two western regions in the South Island lie under a rare red rain warning, which is not expected to lift until later today at the earliest.

A fresh threat of "significant rain" is looming for the West Coast, where an updated forecast is due to guide council officials on preparing the community for the anticipated incoming deluge.

"We're just waiting now for a detailed weather update just to plan next steps because we're conscious that quite a significant amount of rain is still in the forecast going forward into the weekend," said Buller Mayor Jamie Cleine.

Nelson City Council said the Maitai River, which breached its banks yesterday sparking a mass evacuation of residents, is rising once more.

This morning, state highways in Northland were closed by flooding at the Kaeo River Bridge on SH10 and the Rangiahua Bridge on SH1.

A fallen tree led to a crash involving three vehicles on State Highway 1 at Hikurangi around 4.50am.

Police said one person received moderate injuries and two people suffered minor injuries.

A digger works to clear a slip in Nelson. Photo / George Heard

A state of emergency remains in force in Nelson-Tasman and West Coast as rain continues to fall.

Last night residents from more than 200 homes in Nelson were evacuated after the Maitai River bust its banks flooding central parts.

The army patrolled swamped streets as residents sought refuge elsewhere.

The region's civil defence said with rain forecast for coming days there could be more slips and flooding and more evacuations.

It said at this stage there was no telling how long people would need to stay out of their flood-hit properties with all homes needed to be assessed for safety before people could return.

Many streets are impassable with raging floodwaters and debris coursing deep channels and exposing pipes.

Nelson resident Paul Maskell described the thunderous sound of boulders swept along by raging floodwater beneath his Devenish Place home yesterday afternoon.

"It was just like thunder. All you could hear was boulders rolling down the street and the roar of water as well."

The road is impassable with a deep channel scoured out by the debris.

This morning Nelson's Mayor said residents were in for a challenging day, and urged people to stay home.

"We have had some more evacuations overnight mainly precautionary; we have had a road failure on Toronui Hills and we have had 10 homes evacuated just as a precaution," Reese told Gold Sport.

"This event has hit both [Tasman-Nelson] regions and we have got some major roads closed. We want people to stay home if they can, work from home.

"If you are going to be travelling please make sure you have got water, food and warm clothes with you, because you will have delays.

"We have lost our main arterial route through to Ports so all the heavy vehicles are having to come through the city so it is going to be a challenging day for us we have got things set up but the best thing we can do is have people off the roads."

She said people should treat all water as contaminated, because there had been pump station overflows and sewers had broken.

"Don't let your kids jumping around in puddles please."