Whanganui weather: Region hit by heavy rain

Parts of the region are cleaning up after heavy rain hit on Wednesday.

St John's Hill resident Renée Matthews said she was on the hunt for sandbags for her property late on Wednesday morning.

"My house is in a bit of a dip, so all the rain is running downhill and into my front section," Matthews said.

"It's threatening to enter my house, and I'm desperately trying to get some sandbags to stop that from happening. Civil Defence are going up there to have a look and work out how many sandbags we'll need."

Renee Matthews' property on St John's Hill on Wednesday morning. Photo / Supplied

Matthews said she worked at JDT Engineering and Balgownie Trucks and Cranes on Hinau St and there was "water everywhere" there as well.

"It's just got nowhere to go because the rain is so heavy.

"I'm getting flooded on two fronts, but I dare say there will be many other people with the same problems as me."

On Turoa Road in Whanganui East, multiple properties were under water.

Jacqui Hokopaura had arrived home to discover her property submerged.

"It's quite bad, so I called the council to try and get some sand bags to stop the water coming in."

The property is bordered by a small stream which had grown rapidly in the rain.

"It's not as bad as 2015 with all the silt, but it's still a lot of water. My garage is flooded again."

Neighbour Phil Jones, whose property also borders the stream, said she came home to discover water throughout her backyard.

"I came home and thought 'oh no not again'."

Her outdoor office/storage space filled with bathroom renovation items and books was also beginning to flood.

"It's getting in here now too, and it'll probably get worse. I really hope it calms down."

Balgownie Trucks and Cranes on Hinau St was beginning to fill with water late on Wednesday morning. Photo / Renée Matthews

Putiki Kindergarten was flooded around midday on Wednesday, as firefighters battled to extract a large amount of water from the site.

Head teacher Megan Bishop said staff at the kindergarten were aware there was a large amount of rain forecast, but didn't expect the groundwater level to rise so rapidly.

"It started getting quite wet this morning, but the water then rose quite quickly."

Bishop said it was a teacher-only day at the kindergarten, with no children on site.

"It's lucky because if we were open we would've had to send the kids home."

Firefighters were called to pump out flooding on the grounds of Putiki Kindergarten. Photo / Bevan Conley

Five firefighters were at the kindergarten pumping the water on to the road for the stormwater system to collect.

Whanganui station officer Charlie Bilby said crews were expecting to be busy this afternoon.

"This is the first flooding-type callout we've got, but I think there'll be more to come," Bilby said.

"New Plymouth is getting quite busy at the moment, so as the rain band travels through I think we might get quite a few calls."

Surface flooding on the corner of SH3 and Taupo Quay on Wednesday morning. Photo / Bevan Conley

Metservice meteorologist Rob Kerr said there had been 51.6 millimetres of rain in Whanganui in 12 hours from about 3am Wednesday.

"At the moment, it looks like most of the really heavy stuff might miss you [Whanganui] this evening," Kerr said.

"There's still some showers that stretch from Taranaki across to Tongariro that are heading Whanganui's way, so you might get something out of that.

"In the short term, the worst of it is over."

Kerr said there was the chance of some heavy showers in the middle of the day on Thursday, but they would gradually clear out towards the evening.

Photo / Bevan Conley.

Whanganui District Council senior emergency management officer Anthony Edwards said there was no immediate concern of river flooding but he would be keeping a close eye on rainfall throughout the day.

"There has been around 30mm of rain at Ranana between 11pm Tuesday night and now [9.30am Wednesday]," Edwards said.

"We've had a chat with everyone else around our region, as well as with Horizons and their hydro guys.

"We'll be monitoring the rain that'll be falling from now until mid-afternoon, and we'll go from there."

Whanganui District Council is advising motorists to be cautious on the roads.

"There's potential for slips - so please keep an eye out for these," it said in a statement.

"Current predictions will see the river rising - but at this stage not to concerning levels. We will continue to closely monitor conditions."

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for parts of the North Island. Rain accumulations could hit 40mm/hr, with 100km/h gusts and hail also possible. Details at https://t.co/NQBonCMXTZ ^RK pic.twitter.com/C26KUBkC6v

— MetService (@MetService) November 24, 2020

A slip is also causing delays on State Highway 3 south of Hāwera.

Police confirmed the slip near the Tangihoe Bridge by Mokoia was blocking the northbound lane. Contractors are working to clear the road.

This follows Whanganui recording the national high temperature of 19C on Tuesday.

The wet weather will continue to linger until Thursday afternoon at the earliest.

Jacqui Hokopaura and her dog navigating the floodwaters in Turoa Rd. Photo / Ethan Griffiths

Kerr said the warmer temperatures and rainy conditions were connected, due to a slow-moving low system that was sitting west of the North Island.

"It's spinning clockwise and on its eastern side it's dragging down warm air from the subtropics over New Zealand.

"That air warms even more as it flows off the ranges from the north.

"It's a similar effect to when there's a warm northwest wind over Canterbury, but because it [the low] was more northerly you got it better than they did."

Minor flooding on Purnell Street. Photo / Bevan Conley

Horizons river management group manager Ramon Strong said he wasn't predicting "anything of any real significance" in the region in terms of flooding for "this particular weather event".

"That's due in part to a relatively dry 2020, meaning that soil moisture levels are kind of on the low side," Strong said.

"There's a lot more capacity for the ground to absorb rainfall at the moment. It's looking pretty positive around the region, really."

Strong said he would be continuing to monitor rainfall, however, particularly in the upper Whanganui River catchment.

"We've always got half an eye on the weather, but at this stage it doesn't look there will be much [flooding] at all."

Several areas have been hit by power cuts.

Power is currently out for 104 customers in Hunterville following an outage at 8.22am Wednesday.

A field crew is on site investigating the cause of the outage, which is likely associated with the heavy rain experienced in the area.

Powerco aims to have customers reconnected by 3pm Wednesday.

In Waitotara power was cut to 69 customers just before 10am on Wednesday but it had not been established whether the outage was weather-related.

Power was restored to 51 customers by 12.30pm, with the remaining 18 properties expected to be reconnected later on Wednesday afternoon.

The water main feeding Westmere blew out on Wednesday, requiring an emergency shutdown, a Whanganui District Council spokeswoman said.

"It's our immediate priority to fix this and we are working on it now. The cause of the problem with the main is not yet known.

"As Westmere is on a rural water scheme, most residents will have water storage tanks. Under the scheme they are expected to have at least 24 hours supply on site."

It was expected a temporary repair would enable the supply to be restored soon.

Longacre Rd (off Kaimatira Rd) is closed until further notice because of significant surface flooding after today's rain. Access is available to residents for essential travel only.

Kaukatea Valley Road was closed temporarily but has re-opened.