The rain might be falling but rivers in Manawatu are not expected to flood, Horizons Regional Council staff say.

The heavy rain that hammered the wider Manawatu last night and today meant Horizons staff have been watching river levels closely.

Horizons emergency manager Shane Bayley said Manawatu should be fine as the rain was easing off, but the Whanganui River was expected to rise considerably.

Mr Bayley said  there was a further 50-70mm of rain expected to fall in the north of the region.

‘‘We have been in contact with the Wanganui District Council and will continue to work closely with their team as river levels rise. We will be keeping a close eye on river levels throughout the day.’’

In Shannon, the waste water treatment plant had issues with sewage overflowing into Stansell’s Drain and pouring out of manholes in the street.

The Horowhenua District Council had to pump out the excess water.

Recent flood protection upgrades in Manawatu could be responsible for keeping the excess water contained, and Horizons group manager of operations Allan Cook said although it may have been wet, the rivers were more than able to cope with the amount of rain.

‘‘It is not more than we would expect this time of year.

‘‘We are hopeful that the worst is over and our engineers are keeping an eye on how things are going but there has been no reports of flooding so far. We are watching Whanganui closely though.’’ Mr Bayley said members of the public should still take care on the roads as there could be areas of surface flooding.

The ‘‘stubborn’’ weather front bringing heavy rain to parts of the central North Island is expected to clear tonight, Metservice said.

MetService meteorologist Daniel Corbett said the rain would become patchy this afternoon, and much of the persistent rain would have eased by this evening.

‘‘It’s better news after that because high pressure comes in and that leads us to high, dry, more settled conditions over the next few days.’’

‘‘It’s just been a really slow moving weather front, and instead of going straight across it wiggles and it waves so its been stubborn and slow to clear.’’ MetService forecaster Philippa Murdoch said in the past 24 hours, 33mm of rain had fallen in Palmerston North.

‘‘Going back 60 hours, 39 mm of rain has fallen in Palmerston North. So most of the rain has happened in the last 24 hours.’’ A heavy rain warning was issued for the Tararua Range this morning. From 8am a further 70-90mm of rain was predicted to fall on what was considered ‘‘peak intensities’’ of 15-20mm/hr.

However, the rain was forecast to clear by the afternoon, as the weather front gradually moved eastwards to east of Bay of Plenty.  

- © Fairfax NZ News

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