Flooding, heavy rain and severe gales as cyclone remnants move over New Zealand

Thursday, 1 February 2018

A king tide coinciding with a storm closed Tamaki Drive in Auckland in early 2018.

A storm striking New Zealand is flooding streets, closing roads and wreaking havoc across the country.

Shortly before 8am on Thursday Auckland Transport (AT) reported Tamaki Drive was flooded and closed in both directions.

The storm is battering Nelson as well, with trees down and roads closing.

Flooding strikes Auckland's Tamaki Drive on Thursday morning as a king tide hits.

* Are you affected by the weather? Send your story, photos and video to newstips@stuff.co.nz

Civil Defence are keeping an eye on Westland river levels with rainfall already reaching 20mm an hour and high tides from midday.

**READ MORE:

* Flooding closes Auckland's Tamaki Dr

The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Fehi hit Cape Foulwind near Westport.

* Warnings for South Island as cyclone bears down

* Coromandel prepares for worst as tail of cyclone Fehi threatens

* Region on severe weather watch as storm set to end golden run**

Flooding was also being reported by Niwa on the road at Westhaven, under the Harbour Bridge, and on a short section of The Parade between Devon Rd and Hattaway Ave in Bucklands Beach in Auckland's east.

A similar situation took place in January when a king tide happened at the same time a storm hit.

Metservice meteorologist Tui McInnes said it was a coincidence the same combination of weather events was happening again.

'King tides happen every two weeks when they coincide with new and full moons. Usually you wouldn't notice it was happening.'

Auckland Council was keeping an eye on MetService forecasts and didn't expect to see the same extent of flooding or damage as seen in January.

MetService Severe Weather Warning

A council spokesperson said they were monitoring the situation: 'We remind people to use common sense during any storm or bad weather conditions and never drive during flooding.'

But a cafe manager in Maraetai, an area in east Auckland that was hit hard by the January flooding, said he was taking no chances and had closed and barricaded his shop with sand bags.

SMALL TORNADO

Blaketown resident Rewa Kanara saw a small tornado on the Grey River wharf.

'The noise was crazy. It wasn't real tight. It was more like a mist. I was driving and it was beside us on the water where the boats are, it skipped the road to the park then puckered out. My jaw literally dropped,' she said.

Greymouth fire chief Lee Swinburn said the wind was picking up in the Grey district just before 10am.

Heavy rain picked to hit the country is shown in this MetService rain forecast for 1pm Thursday.

'It's escalating now and the calls are starting to come in. It's mainly loose iron and roofing coming off and that kind of thing,' he said.

High winds have also caused some power outages in Buller.

Waiho River in Franz Josef. Heavy rain has hit the West Coast causing trees to block roads and rivers to swell.

Buller Electricity chief executive Eamon Ginley said there were small areas without power on Thursday morning.

He said the areas affected included Denniston, Carters Beach, Charleston and the Coast Road. He could not say how many people were affected.

'I have crews on standby to deal with the small isolated areas. I believe it has been caused by lines crashing as the wind is building in strength.'

HEAVY RAIN FALLING

'The rain's setting in and the wind's just starting to pick up,' MetService meteorologist Sarah Garlick said. 'It's going to be mainly during the daylight hours that it's going to be pretty nasty.'

Some places in the west of the South Island had already been getting rainfall rates of 18-20mm an hour. Quite a lot of rain had also been spilling over into Southland, Otago and South Canterbury.

Westland mayor Bruce Smith said river levels were monitored overnight. A Civil Defence crew was on standby in case the rivers rose and affected residents.

West Coast Civil Defence Emergency Management Group worker Mark Crowe said crews reassessed the water levels of rising rivers at 6.30am on Thursday.

Some had slightly lifted but there was 'nothing of any kind of alarm just yet', he said

HUGE WAVES

A king high tide forecast at midday would be the 'pinch point' for most flood prone areas, especially in Westland. Waves of 5 - 7 metres high were expected from 12pm Thursday to early Friday morning.

Atmospheric low pressure may add an additional 40 to 50 centimetres of sea level rise to the high tides and there was the potential for a storm surge up to 1m high, the Westland District Council advised.

Crowe, who was based in Greymouth, said emergency response teams had plenty of warning ahead of the rain, which had not arrived until very early in the morning and eased to a light drizzle by 7am.

Civil Defence groups on standby would 'keep an eye' on rain over other parts of the coast and the day progressed.

Traffic was moving around the coast as normal but State Highway 6, between Hokitika and Ross, had closed due to a fallen tree.

Haast chief fire officer Kerry Eggeling said no damage had been reported in the South Westland town overnight.

The wind had picked up on Thursday morning, but was not as strong as expected.

Eggeling's rain gauge had recorded 63mm of rain since 9am Wednesday, which was 'not a lot for us'.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS

MetService on Thursday morning issued a watch for possible severe thunderstorms in the South Island about Westland and southern Buller, valid until 2pm Thursday.

In the North Island, a severe thunderstorm watch was issued for Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula, Waikato, Waitomo, Taumarunui, Taupo, Taranaki, and Taihape through to 11pm Thursday.

A further watch for Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, and Taupo extended through to 7am Friday.

Rain could reach intensities of 25 to 40mm per hour, and possibly more in the downpours, the forecaster said, but the bursts 'may not necessarily be accompanied by thunderstorms'.

MetService warned that rainfall of that intensity could cause flash flooding, especially about low-lying areas such as streams, rivers or narrow valleys, and may also lead to slips.

Driving conditions would also be hazardous with surface flooding and poor visibility in heavy rain, it warned.

CRITICAL TIME

'This morning and moving into this afternoon will be the critical time as that low crosses the middle of the South Island,' Garlick said.

The combination of strong winds, heavy swells and high tides could cause also coastal inundation along the west coast of the South Island and also Nelson during Thursday.

The low - the remnants of Fehi - was still in the central Tasman Sea early Thursday and would be approaching the country during the morning. It was expected to move over Westland and then cross over South Canterbury.

MetService expects the heaviest rain in the South Island, apart from Canterbury Plains and Kaikoura Coast, particularly in Westland and Fiordland where 200 to 400mm of rain could fall through to early Friday.

Heavy rain is also expected for Mt Taranaki and the Tararua Ranges, and from afternoon in the ranges of Bay of Plenty, Rotorua and Gisborne.

Gale force winds, with gusts to 130kmh, are expected for southern and central New Zealand, initially from the north, but turning northwest then southwest later. The strongest winds are likely to be in Westland, Buller, Canterbury High Country, Nelson, Marlborough , Wellington and southern Taranaki.

The stormy weather on the first day of the new month comes after the warmest January on record in all six main centres.