Coromandel prepares for worst as tail of cyclone Fehi threatens

Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Twelve homes were deemed uninhabitable in Kaiaua after the January 5 storm. Another king tide and storm combination is due in the area.

Another storm colliding with king tides had Coromandel and Hauraki districts preparing for the worst - though warnings were downgraded on Wednesday evening.

The tail of tropical cyclone Fehi is due to hit just weeks after a similar event flooded homes, farmland and destroyed roads on January 5.

One of the badly-damaged areas of Thames Coast Rd in the January 5 event was near Whakatete Bay, not far north of Thames.

The battered rock walls along Thames Coast Road have been repaired as much as possible in preparation, the NZ Transport Agency says.

The tail of the cyclone was due to hit the West Coast of the South Island, Thames-Coromandel Civil Defence Controller Garry Towler said, but it was moving very quickly and would bring a 'short, sharp sting' to the Coromandel Peninsula.

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Civil Defence is urging residents to prepare for another storm with king tides similar to the January 5 weather event, which flooded homes in Te Puru on the Thames Coast.

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'Once again, the poor old west coast, the Firth of Thames, is probably going to bear the brunt of it,' he said.

There will be king tides on February 1 at 8.25am and 8.50pm and on February 2 at 9.16am and 9.15pm.

'We're focussing our attention this time on Thursday night and Friday morning king tides because alongside the king tides - which are quite big, but not as big as the last ones but still quite big, there are some nasty winds,' he said.

Winds of up to 80km/h were expected late Thursday and early Friday.

'We've got that mix, that storm mix of high winds and king tides. We anticipate that it won't be as big as January's storm but … it'll be a bit uncomfortable, so the thing is let's just get prepared.'

Predictions for the storm were downgraded on Wednesday night, according to a Hauraki District Council release.

That said, council staff would be on the Kaiaua coast to monitor the high tide times.

Some low-lying areas of the district are expected to experience flooding and there would probably be water on some roads, Hauraki District Controller Steve Fabish said.

However, MetService and Waikato Regional Council didn't expect the storm to have a significant impact.

The time to watch was from midday Thursday to dawn on Friday - especially around high tide times of 8.45pm and 9.20am.

The Thames Coast Road shouldn't be so badly hit this time, NZTA Waikato System Manager Karen Boyt said.

That's because of a different wind direction to January's storm - the agency has been keeping a close eye on forecasts.

'We have certainly been aware of the king tide for quite some time and have made sure that our rock walls are as much completed as possible,' she said.

Crews have also done as much as they can to get the road built back up to and ready to withstand the forecast weather - but they will be ready to respond if needed.

Hauraki District Council urged residents to have a plan in place, make sure they had enough supplies and medication to last for a few days should they be cut off, and think about where they might self-evacuate to, such as friends and family, in the event they had to leave their homes.

Other things to plan for could include lifting things off the floor, covering gully traps and septic tank mushrooms with plywood, disconnecting and raising water pumps, putting plywood in front of exposed windows, moving vehicles to higher ground, and filling sandbags, which were available from the Kaiaua Fire Station.

Thames Coromandel District Council has distributed about 10,000 sandbags to coastal communities ahead of the storm.

In Ngatea, Waikato Regional Council has almost finished raising stop banks half a metre on the town side of the Piako River after flood waters threatened to top them during the January storm. This work will be complete by Thursday evening.

STAY INFORMED

An online hub for rainfall and flood related information has been set up by Waikato Regional Council to help people more easily keep up to date with any weather events in the region. It can be found at www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/flood-room.

Latest weather forecasts are available at www.metservice.com.

Local radio - check stations and frequencies www.waikatoregioncdemg.govt.nz/NewsandEvents.

Regular updates will also be posted on council Facebook pages and websites www.hauraki-dc.govt.nz and www.tcdc.govt.nz.