A washout caused a train to derail in the Rangitīkei District last night.
Video / Bevan Conley
Flooded train tracks caused a train's 12 wagons to derail and crash into farmland in the central North Island.
Wild weather has lashed the North Island and left many parts of Feilding and Manawatū under water the past 24 hours, and impacted the country's main trunk line last night after the northbound freight train partially derailed.
Meanwhile, Counties Energy is warning of possible outages from this evening due to high winds from thunderstorms.
KiwiRail's Siva Sivapakkiam said the crash happened about 11pm as the train travelled south of Hunterville.
"About 11pm last night a north-bound freight train partially derailed on the North Island Main Trunk Line, just south of Hunterville.
"One of the locomotives and about 12, mostly empty, wagons have come off the tracks. The second locomotive and a number of other wagons are still on the tracks."
The derailment also damaged a number of traction poles that hold up the electrified line.
Sivapakkiam said it appeared the rail line was washed out by heavy rain at a number of points.
KiwiRail staff were now on site and would work to reopen the line as soon as possible.
However, there was no definite timeline for the repair at the moment, he said.
There were no injuries.
One of the carriages remains upright while others have crashed off near Hunterville. Photo / Bevan Conley
Counties Energy said it had been advised by MetService there was a risk of heavy rain and some thunderstorms tonight until tomorrow morning.
The high winds will hit from 8pm through to about midnight, gusting between 70km/h and 90km/h.
They will spark up again about 1am tomorrow until around 5am and gust up to 100km/h.
"These winds could cause power outages so please do your storm prep," it wrote on its Facebook page.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is also actively monitoring Cyclone Ruby as it tracks towards New Zealand.
Jacqui Hori-Hoult, regional manager operations and maintenance, said the weather event had the potential to impact the state highway network with heavy rain warnings already in place for parts of the North Island.
She urged motorists to travel with care especially given the re-opening and removal of the Auckland borders tonight.
"On the night of December 14 southbound traffic can expect closures in place from 10pm to 1am as the boundary is removed while northbound traffic can expect stop/go traffic management in place until midnight, with the boundary removed by 1am.
"In the days following we know that people across the country will be looking forward to re-connecting with friends and whānau ahead of the holiday period and we are expecting the roads to be very busy."
With this in mind, Waka Kotahi has decided to pause all planned maintenance and capital works involving full road closures on SH1 in Northland, Auckland and Waikato for a period of five days from Wednesday, December 15 to 8pm Sunday, December 19.
HEAVY RAIN FOR NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NZ
A complex low pressure system (not Tropical Cyclone Ruby) is bringing rain to...
"Predicting Aucklanders' movements leading into Christmas and after four months of boundary restrictions is a tough ask. If you are planning on leaving please make sure your car is registered, has a current WOF and you check your tyres, windscreen wipers and lights," Hori-Hoult said.
"Be patient and build in time for a safe and stress-free journey."
Air NZ has also had to cancel a number of flights due to poor weather conditions and low cloud today.
Wellington has borne the brunt of the issues so far with Flight NZ5330 from Christchurch to Wellington at 6.35am cancelled and several other flights due to fly in and out of Wellington have also been affected.
"Flights from Gisborne, New Plymouth, Blenheim, Nelson and Tauranga, Rotorua have also been affected.
"We thank our customers for their patience and understanding as our teams deal with these weather related changes," a spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, MetService is forecasting more heavy rain for around Waiouru, Whanganui and its surrounds today.
MetService meteorologist Curtis Hayes said some areas, like Feilding, have been inundated with rain, causing flooding.
"Quite a lot happened in a short period of time – there were heavy falls, thunderstorm activity in the area. In two hours 35mm of rain fell, and from yesterday afternoon to now there's been about 60mm – which has caused the flooding."
Hayes said the wet weather wasn't over yet – persistent rain will fall across the region through Tuesday and into Wednesday – although Wednesday may have some dry spells.
Slips and flooding are a concern where the heaviest rain occurs.
A north-bound freight train partially derailed on the North Island Main Trunk Line near Hunterville last night due to a wash-out. Photo / Bevan Conley
Niwa says tropical moisture is causing the rainfall due to the cloud connection from the tropics.
"This is the fuel for heavy rainfall over the next 36 hours for much of the North and upper South Islands," it posted on Twitter.
