Flood damage reported in Taranaki

Widespread flood damage has been reported around coastal Taranaki, despite major storms yesterday largely failing to materialise.

A number of houses were severely damaged near Okato after the Stony River burst its banks from flash flooding shortly after midnight this morning.

Some residents reported hearing boulders crashing near their homes.

Widespread damage to farms in the Rahotu area further south from Okato was reproted, with farmers losing access bridges.

Large culverts have also been destroyed, while there are reports of trees and fences down.

Emergency crews were still on the scene.

Severe weather warnings were lifted this morning after yesterday's expected storms largely failed to appear.

Heavy rain battered parts in the North Island, and kept firefighters in the far north busy with surface-flooding related incidents, but overall, the meeting of two weather fronts yesterday caused limited damage.

Warnings of thunderstorms, lightning, torrential rain and gale-force winds were predicted yesterday.

Instead, the worst most regions experienced was heavy rain.

The worst-hit was Northland, where firefighters were attending flood calls every four minutes between 11pm and midnight.

The New Zealand Fire Service said firefighters from Whangarei, Northland and Auckland attended to slips, cars stranded in floodwaters, and numerous houses and garages filled with water overnight.

At 11.30pm the wettest place was Auckland's eastern suburbs.

A Pakuranga home was forced to move its belongings upstairs after water started filling to knee high level.

The Fire Service said a woman in Helena Bay was forced to abandoned her vehicle after she became stranded in floodwaters.

Large slips had prevented firefighters from reaching her, so fearing she would be swamped, she scrambled to higher ground to a local farmers residence before walking home.

The Metservice reported Whangarei had received 35.8mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.

There were limited call outs throughout the rest of the North Island, with a Fire Service spokesman saying there had been "two or three" surface flooding incidents on the Kapiti Coast, around Raumati, and one or two in the Taranaki.

A Southern Fire Service spokesman said there had not been any weather-related call outs overnight.

The Metservice this morning lifted the severe weather warnings which had remained in place overnight, saying the front had moved away off the east of the North Island.