Clean-up begins after North Island deluge

BY JESSICA SUTTON

Central North Island residents are today assessing damage to their properties after some areas experienced 300mm of rainfall yesterday.

Emergency operation centres were activated in Horowhenua, Manawatu, Rangitikei and Tararua due to the deluge. Tararua also operated its civil defence measures, including a welfare centre in Pahiatua.

Major roads were closed yesterday and Palmerston North was nearly cut off from the rest of the country with sections of the Manawatu Gorge and State Highways 56, 57, 2 and 1 all shut because of severe surface flooding.

The latest road to close is State Highway 3 at Mokau Road, 48km north of New Plymouth.

Police said it was completely blocked by a huge slip and a geologist had been called to assess the situation.

Sections of The Gorge and State Highways 56 and 57 still remain closed and cleanup crews are continuing to remove large slips from main roads and also rural roads that has caused access problems for some farmers.

At least three schools - Mangamaire School, Ruahine School and Tararua College  - were closed yesterday and about 60 residents were forced to flee rising waters in Pahiatua after the Mangatainoka River rose to 100-year record levels.

About 50 residents around the Tararua town of Pahiatua were moved from their homes, some to a school hall, as the Mangatainoka River rose yesterday.

Stewart Neal, who runs sheep on a 100-hectare farm south of Marton, scrambled to move stock to higher ground when the Tutaenui stream swelled, flooding about 80 per cent of his property.

"It only took about half an hour for the water to come up and surprise everyone. I don't think anyone expected it to be as severe as it was."

He and others who ran stock on the land suffered minimal losses, though the family lost pet sheep Chrystal and her two lambs.

Marton pensioner Peter Turner, 66, reckoned all hope of selling his one-bedroom home were washed away with the floodwaters.

Water began pouring into his property about 1pm and was about 40cm deep in his kitchen and living room 20 minutes later.

"The same thing happened in 2004 and it took six months before the house was dry and the smell gone. My house was on the market, but I don't like my chances after this."

The rain began to ease about 4pm and water levels recede, with Tararua,  the worst hit of the  regions, deactivating its Civil Defence measures at 10.15pm.

The Moutoa and Makino floodgates were opened last night to allow excess flows down the floodways and ease river levels.

MetService forecaster Oliver  Druce said between 200 and 300 millimetres of rain fell in the Tararua Range yesterday, while in the low-lying areas, including Palmerston North, Levin, Pohangina and Pahiatua, it varied from 40mm to 100mm.

Mr Druce said heavy rain fall was  predicted to hit the central North Island this afternoon, but Horowhenua and Manawatu would be largely unaffected.

However, rivers in Whanganui and Rangitikei are this morning continuing to rise.

The Manawatu, Tararua, Rangitikei and Whanganui districts all suffered extensively yesterday.

In Wairarapa, rising river levels saw farmers scurrying to shift stock from harm's way. As well as locals having to contend with fallen trees, slips closed roads as stormwater drains struggled to cope.

Zelda Souter-Baldin, of Otaki, was rung at about 2am by a neighbour who warned her the Waitohu Stream, near her Convent Rd property, had breached its banks.

Despite Kapiti Coast District Council sandbagging about six properties in the street, floodwaters gushed over sandbags at her back door into her spare bedroom, bathroom and washhouse, drenching carpets and rugs. "It happened really fast."

North of Shannon, farmer Euan Mark battled heavy rain and strong gales yesterday to save his stock. "It's worse than the 2004 floods," he said.

Another Shannon farmer, Bronwyn McIntyre, said 20 of her lambs died in the floodwaters.

Horowhenua's water treatment plant had to be shut down, with residents in Levin, Shannon and Tokomaru as well as surrounding rural areas receiving town supply being advised to boil drinking water.

- with The Dominion Post and NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News