Residents reeling from storm

Miihi Mareikura's retaining wall was damaged in the heavy rainfall. She's pictured with her son Ty-Rhys. Photo / Stephen Parker

Rotorua residents are still cleaning up after one of the district's worst storms in recent times.

A massive 143mm of rainfall was recorded in four-and-a-half hours on Wednesday.

Among those reeling from the rain is Miihi Mareikura who discovered a retaining wall leaning against her house after the backyard in front of her rental home had dropped about 25cm.

"I went to drop my daughter off to school about 9am and got back and it was like that," she said.

"The bottom half has been bulging but that was about it, never as bad as this. If that falls it can smash into the window. I'm worried for my kids, they're staying up at my Mum's house until it gets fixed."

Barnard Rd resident Andy Sloane said he would continue his clean-up from the one in 30-year flood over the weekend.

Mr Sloane's garage was swamped in the deluge and one of the cars parked in his driveway was partially submerged.

"There's not a lot of damage to clean up now and the insurance company is doing what they do," he said. "Within an hour of the rain stopping it was pretty much all gone. Hopefully it will hold off for another 30 years."

Mayor Steve Chadwick said Rotorua residents, council and emergency services staff worked well together and were able to minimise the potentially serious impacts of the storm.

"People were generally very careful, co-operative and understanding of a difficult and fast-changing situation - one which could otherwise have had much more dire consequences," she said.

"I was impressed by the way Rotorua coped, particularly the co-ordination effort by the city's new police command centre and our own council emergency operations centre. That collaborative effort was outstanding.

"I want to say a big 'thank you' to everyone who played a part in dealing with a raft of problems right across the city and district, and for helping to keep people and property as safe as possible. Well done Rotorua."

Council crews, especially those involved in roading and stormwater, have been clearing up and checking systems after the big storm. Work was expected to continue for several days before everything could be checked, cleared and back in order.

Council water solutions director Andy Bell said the rainfall was equivalent to a one in 30-year event and was more than what the city's stormwater reticulation networks were designed for.

"The current design standard is aimed at once in five-to-10-year storms, as is the case with many urban areas across the country," he said.

"However, impacts on our urban and rural areas from such a storm as we experienced this week were not unexpected, and fortunately our district's infrastructure generally coped well, considering the size of the event. But we always learn from these things and we're now assessing any areas where we can make improvements to prepare us even better for future storms."