Aucklanders issued emergency phone alert for downpours

For a recap of 1News' live updates as wild weather continued to sweep across the North Island on Sunday, scroll down.

11.15pm: That concludes 1News' live updates for today.

Join us from tomorrow morning for all the latest on the weather around the country.

11.05pm: The below severe thunderstorm warning is over.

10.40pm: A severe thunderstorm warning is now in place for Waikato, Hauraki, Matamata-Piako, Hamilton City and Waipa.

"This line of severe thunderstorms is moving towards the southwest, and is expected to lie from TANIWHA to TAUHEI to WHITEHALL at 10:45 pm and from OHINEWAI to GORDONTON to ROTOORANGI at 11.15 pm," MetService said.

"These thunderstorms are expected to be accompanied by torrential rain."

10.30pm: Aucklanders celebrate their anniversary day tomorrow, but transport in the region's set to be affected by the rain.

Read the full story here: Auckland trains to run reduced service due to slips, flooding

10.20pm: Vector crews have worked "continuously since Friday afternoon to restore power to customers" in Auckland, the company said in a statement this evening.

"With most of the network restored, as our crews gain access and assess remaining faults we are finding complexities that have not been apparent before," the statement read.

Some places will see temporary solutions before more permanent repairs can be made later, the company added.

9.55pm: A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for Waikato, Hauraki, Matamata-Piako and Waipa.

"This line of severe thunderstorms is moving towards the southwest, and is expected to lie from KAIHERE to PATETONGA to TE MIRO at 10:07 pm and from TANIWHA to HOE-O-TAINUI to MATANGI at 10:37 pm," MetService said.

"These thunderstorms are expected to be accompanied by torrential rain."

9.40pm: Waiheke Island earlier tonight.

9.25pm: The Auckland Council says 72 building inspectors were deployed on Saturday to undertake "rapid impact assessments" of buildings and houses impacted by slips and flood damage.

"Early on Sunday morning a full-scale building assessment operation began with 130 council inspectors from Auckland and a further 15 inspectors from Hamilton and Tauranga.

"The operation will cover more than 5000 dwellings and commercial buildings in over 25 suburbs," the council said in a media release.

9.10pm: Here are the latest severe weather warnings and watches from MetService.

Northland and Auckland are under a severe thunderstorm watch until 10am tomorrow, with a warning that "rainfall of this intensity can cause surface and/or flash flooding, especially about low-lying areas such as streams, rivers or narrow valleys, and may also lead to slips".

Orange heavy rain warnings are in place for Northland until noon tomorrow and Auckland including Great Barrier Island until 7am tomorrow.

Heavy rain watches are in place for Coromandel Peninsula until 3am tomorrow, Waikato north and west of Cambridge until 5am tomorrow, Tasman northwest of Motueka from midnight tonight until 3pm tomorrow, and the Richmond and Bryant Ranges, the Rai Valley area and the Marlborough Sounds until noon tomorrow.

8.50pm: Last night, hundreds of passengers were on board an Interislander ferry that lost power to its engines amid the heavy weather.

Watch the full story below.

8.30pm: Alongside Auckland, Waitomo is also in a state of emergency.

Watch the full story below.

8.23pm: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown "focussed today on ensuring Auckland is as well prepared as possible for any further heavy or torrential rain tonight, and on the recovery from Friday night's unprecedented downpour", his office said in a statement.

"The Mayor spent most of the day in South Auckland, also visiting Shore Road in Central Auckland.

"The grassroots information the Mayor obtained will help improve both tonight's response to worsening weather and the short- and medium-term recovery," the statement said.

8.00pm: An Emergency Mobile Alert has just been sent to Aucklanders' phones.

"Given recent rainfall, the ground is extremely saturated which changes how rainfall can affect the environment," Auckland Emergency Management Controller Mace Ward said.

"The decision to issue this alert was made so people in the region can make the best decisions of how to remain safe, should this heavy rain eventuate."

Aucklanders are advised to check the agency's website and social media for updates and information.

7.45pm: "NEMA will be switching to our 24-7 Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting (MAR) centre overnight," the National Emergency Management Agency tweeted this evening.

"While we don't anticipate any major developments, MAR will be closely monitoring the situation and will post any updates."

7.40pm: Thousands of insurance claims have already been lodged after Friday's flooding in Auckland.

Watch the full story below.

7.23pm: NZ Post expect to resume normal deliveries from Tuesday after their operations in Auckland were suspended on Friday.

"Our priority is always the safety and wellbeing of our people, and we needed to make sure all our teams were safe and back home with their whānau," a spokesperson said. "We are keeping a close eye on the situation and on advice from official sources such as Civil Defence.

"In areas where there is safe access, by Tuesday we expect deliveries to return to normal including items that were due for delivery on Saturday."

People are advised to keep an eye on NZ Post's delivery updates page for the latest.

7.10pm: The thunderstorm warning issued earlier for the Wellington area has been lifted.

But severe thunderstorm watches remain in place for Wanganui, Manawatu, Tararua, Kapiti-Horowhenua, Wairarapa, and Wellington until 9pm tonight, and for Northland and Auckland until 10am tomorrow.

People are advised to check MetService for the latest severe weather warnings and watches.

7.00pm: 1News went to Auckland Airport today, as the backlog there is expected to take days to clear.

6.50pm: Air New Zealand said in a statement earlier today it's seen an almost 600% increase in calls to its call centre.

"Yesterday we had over 31,500 calls, compared to 4600 on Saturday last week," Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan explained. "Our team is working around the clock to rebook customers.

"We thank them for their patience while we work through the enormous backlog we are faced with."

6.35pm: It was another day of rain, wind and recovery for parts of the North Island today.

6.22pm: Overnight, Aucklanders have been told to continue expecting localised downpours with high-intensity rain rates throughout the next 12 hours.

6.05pm: MetService has added the geographic area of Hutt City and Porirua City to its severe thunderstorm warning in the Wellington region.

5.49pm: A red thunderstorm warning has been expanded in parts of the Wellington region. Areas affected include Kāpiti Coast, Upper Hutt, South Wairarapa, and Carterton.

The region's Civil Defence said the warning was in place until 6:30pm.

"This can cause surface and flash flooding, and make driving conditions extremely hazardous," the agency said.

5.39pm: A slip near Tāmaki Drive in Auckland's Parnell has worsened in the past hour - with debris falling away closer and closer to a house.

5.10pm: Mayor Wayne Brown has said officials "may have" made "some incorrect decisions" on the night of the flooding. The mayor himself had been criticised for being slow to communicate with Aucklanders. Read the full story here

4.56pm: MetService has upgraded a heavy rain watch in Auckland to an orange warning.

A severe thunderstorm warning is in place for Upper Hutt City and South Wairarapa.

A severe thunderstorm watch in the Wellington region has also just been extended southwestwards to include areas down to the Kāpiti Coast.

4.42pm: Auckland Emergency Management deputy controller Rachel Kelleher says the key message from authorities is that residents must maintain vigilance despite improving conditions today and tomorrow.

"In areas north of Orewa, like Wellsford, there is a risk of localised downfalls. With the ground saturated in the areas they are, that kind of rainfall could cause problems."

With a stretched stormwater system, authorities are also warning people to stay away from the beach until summer weather returns to Auckland.

"We really recommend that you avoid beaches for the next few days until the weather settles down," Kelleher said.

4.17pm: Auckland Transport (AT) general manager of service delivery Andrew Allen says that transport remains significantly disrupted throughout the city.

"Really expect a longer and impacted journey time - be that whether you're travelling on public transport or getting around by road," he said.

Allen said 45 roads around the city are partially or fully closed and that the list was "constantly changing" due to new slips or identified damage.

Meanwhile, closed sections of the Southeastern Highway and Great North Road would re-open later this evening, Allen said.

Trains would resume running on Tuesday but would be operating with a "degraded service" due to slips and track subsidence identified by KiwiRail.

"We are expecting to be able to run some reduced services on both these lines, however it’s likely that the Meadowbank Station will be closed and that passengers on the Western Line will need to transfer between trains at New Lynn," AT said earlier.

4.10pm: Fire and Emergency region manager Ron Devlin says they are contacting people who made requests for assistance on Friday that were assessed to be of "lesser prioritisation" - in order to see if they still need support.

"There is additional bad weather predicted, and we're preparing and making sure that we are ready to respond to that," he said.

3.46pm: Transport authorities and emergency management officials are about to give an update on flood recovery efforts around Auckland. Watch the live stream here.

The media conference is expected at 4pm. That briefing will be live-streamed on 1news.co.nz, and there will also be live updates on this page if you cannot listen in.

In a statement at 3.30pm, Auckland Emergency Management said they wanted to emphasise the risk of localised downpours near Orewa, in North Auckland, tonight.

"Key to note is the risk of localised downpours north of Orewa tonight and overnight (7pm Sunday – 6am Monday)."

Officials said that 65 teams were working across Auckland to assess properties.

"There are 130 assessors on the ground, working in 65 teams covering a wide area from Wellsford to Pukekohe. Rapid building assessments take about 20 minutes each. The teams are issuing placards when required, and leaving information for homeowners."

3.15pm: A slip-damaged house in Auckland's Remuera, on Shore Rd, is being demolished today after the storm.

2.55pm: NZ Post said it expects normal deliveries to resume on Tuesday after the weekend's severe weather.

"In areas where there is safe access, by Tuesday we expect deliveries to return to normal including items that were due for delivery on Saturday."

2.47pm: Locals in North Auckland's Riverhead are concerned debris could damage the bridge through their town on the Coatesville-Riverhead Highway. 

"On each tide the logs batter the bridge," Mary Logan told 1News. "Coatesville lost the Mill Flat Rd Bridge this storm so we know the damage tree trunks can do."

2.15pm: Wood said there is still heavy rain expected later today and that roading authorities are currently preparing for additional impacts.

The Transport Minister said "48 truckloads of material" had to be removed from Auckland's Northwestern Motorway - State Highway 16.

Full video: Carmel Sepuloni and Michael Wood give update on Govt flood response

Wood also gave an update on public transport services in Auckland. He revealed that work was ongoing to pump water out of the city's underground Britomart train station.

"The Northern Busway is fully operational and back to normal speed levels," he said. "The pumping out of Britomart continues, with further updates expected later today."

The first Hobsonville ferry service would resume shortly, Wood said, with ferries to Rakino Island would continue to be suspended.

2.09pm: Sepuloni says the Ministry of Social Development has brought in more workers to staff phone lines, with over 400 calls made to the agency overnight.

There have been no people in emergency housing that have been displaced, she says.

Civil Defence payments can be accessed if people have had to leave home, can't return to their home, or cannot go to work, the social development minister says.

"Over the last 24 hours, we've come to realise the true significance and impact of the flooding, not only in peoples' homes but in their livelihoods," Sepuloni says.

2.01pm: Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Transport Minister Michael Wood are expected to field media questions any moment now. Watch the live stream here.

1.45pm:

One body has been found in the search for a missing man in Waikato, police say.

"Police search and rescue personnel looking for the person swept away by floodwaters on Friday in Onewhero have today found the body of a man," they said in a statement.

"While formal ID is yet to be completed, it is believed to be the missing man. He was located by a drone operator about 1km downstream from where he went missing.

"Four people have now died during Auckland's severe weather event since Friday."

1.26pm: Police have named the Wairau Valley man whose body was found dead in floodwaters on Friday night. Read the full story here.

1.10pm: MetService's Georgina Griffiths says that there will be calm tomorrow before another weather system moves into the Auckland and Northland in the next few days.

"From about dawn tomorrow - it's a rest day, a reprieve day. Use Monday to clean up, get yourself sorted out.

"The reason why is that we're looking at a significant, potentially, system - a northeasterly rain and gale system coming in from the north again.

Full video: Auckland Civil Defence and MetService update weather situation

"This affects Northland, potentially quite significantly Tuesday, and comes into Auckland either later Tuesday or during Wednesday.

"Given the region's vulnerability, we may not need much rain in Auckland to see some impacts from a flooding or slip point of view.

She said details, including timing, about the system's potential impact on Auckland were not yet firm.

Auckland Civil Defence duty controller Rachel Kelleher says about 140 workers are on the ground in flooded suburbs to rapidly assess whether homes are safe to enter.

12.51pm: We're awaiting an update from Auckland Emergency Management officials at the top of the hour. Authorities are giving an update on their regional response to the devastation caused by flooding in the past few days.

That media conference will be live-streamed on 1news.co.nz, and there will also be live updates on this page if you cannot listen in.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Transport Minister Michael Wood are expected to field media questions at 2pm.

We'll have live updates from their comments on this page.

12.25pm: National Party leader Christopher Luxon has done a walkabout to local businesses in Browns Bay on Auckland's North Shore.

Luxon told 1News that the next few days need to be focused on the people who have been badly affected by the floods.

"I think there's probably a need for some more information, particularly as I was at schools last night and today, you know are they actually open under the state of emergency, they're supposed to be closed, what's the right thing to be doing."

12.10pm: Aerial footage shows flooding surrounding the debris from a destroyed freight train near Tauranga.

The train reportedly derailed northeast of Te Puke early this morning.

Photos sent to 1News show the aftermath of the derailment. The incident occurred on rail tracks running parallel to the Pacific Coast Highway.

SunLive reports that the locomotive carrying logs came off the tracks at about 4am this morning.

The derailment occurred amid heavy rain overnight in the Bay of Plenty as wild weather moves further south from Auckland and Waikato.

12.04pm: The Auckland Art Gallery has announced it is set to re-open tomorrow.

"The gallery has removed flood waters from our building. Artworks have also been moved for safety," the gallery said in a Facebook post.

"We will be closed today and are set to open tomorrow at 10am."

11.50am: Coromandel Civil Defence controller Garry Towler says "emergency services are totally maxed out already" and is urgently warning people to avoid risky situations.

Residents are also being told to conserve water for the next two days due to difficulties treating water with heavy sediment.

The Coromandel is now isolated due to road closures, and authorities are urging people to stay off the roads and avoid travel at all costs.

11.35am: MetService says there is a "high uncertainty" over the forecasted intensity of heavy rain in Auckland this afternoon.

"Heavy rain and thunderstorms affecting Coromandel and Waikato, slowly moving northwards and westwards," the agency said in a tweet.

"High uncertainty surrounding the intensity of the rain as it moves over Auckland this afternoon - risk of downpours is higher North of Orewa."

There are currently no red warnings in the North Island.

But orange heavy rain warnings are in place for Coromandel and Northland.

Auckland Emergency Management says more wild weather could come in "bursts of heavy rain" later today.

"We are expecting rain to move into Tāmaki Makaurau throughout today with the potential for bursts of heavy rain with impacts felt later this afternoon and overnight."

Heavy rain watches are in place for Auckland, Waikato, Waitomo, and Taranaki.

11.12am: Drone footage shows the extent of a landslide in Tauranga that saw a house destroyed this morning. Read and watch the full story here.

10.58am: Auckland's deputy mayor Desley Simpson says the communication of local authorities in the first hours of the storm was inadequate.

"This, in my opinion, should never happen like it did on Friday, and there will be a review," she told Newstalk ZB this morning.

"I've heard the mayor say it - both to myself and publicly - that he believes it could have been better as well."

The deputy mayor has re-urged Aucklanders to avoid unnecessary travel today - while emergency services are still stretched with significant road damage across the region.

"What is going to happen is both the prime minister and the mayor have agreed that there will be quite a detailed investigation into this later, and I think that's very healthy, but for now, we're focused on the task at hand."

Mayor Wayne Brown defended parts of Friday's emergency communication yesterday in a testy media conference with reporters.

10.16am: A new community service hub is opening at Māngere Memorial Hall between 11am and 3pm, authorities say. Auckland Emergency Management says workers will be available to help people with accommodation requests and other needs.

The centre is located at 23 Domain Road in Māngere Bridge.

10.15am: Auckland Emergency Management has updated the ongoing weather situation at a media conference this morning. The agency says it will now be giving daily updates.

Duty controller Rachel Kelleher says further rain in Auckland today is expected, despite it easing yesterday and overnight.

"While we're not expecting the same level of rain we had on Friday, we are really vulnerable as a region because our grounds are completely saturated."

At least 5000 homes were damaged during the floods, officials say. Nine have been red-stickered as being uninhabitable - with more expected to be categorised today.

Further media briefings will be provided by Civil Defence at 1pm and 4pm today. It comes after criticism there was poor communication during the first days of the floods.

There will also be three briefings provided tomorrow. Auckland councillor Richard Hills has urged the agency to live-stream the media conferences.

10am:

9am: Photos are emerging from Waitomo showing the extent of the flooding.

8.45am: Tauranga residents told 1News it sounded like a "tornado" others said they heard a loud "bang" when the home collapsed.

The house has moved 20 metres towards the road shunting debris into nearby properties.

Many of the residents 1News spoke to said they stayed elsewhere last night.

Locals said it's a lovely community and the family had young children, some of whom were screaming, but managed to get out safely.

8am: A home in Tauranga has collapsed in a landslide as a result of the wild weather.

Police said no one has been injured but neighbouring properties are threatened.

Police have assisted with evacuations in the area.

"There is widespread flooding across the Bay of Plenty, and roads have been heavily affected by slips.

"Police are asking those in areas experiencing severe weather to stay put and not attempt to travel on the roads, many of which are currently undriveable.

"Anyone required to evacuate will be contacted directly by Civil Defence or emergency services staff."

7.20am: Severe thunderstorms are on the way for several parts of the country, according to MetService.

The thunderstorms are moving towards the east, and are expected to lie near Colville, Matarangi, Cape colville, Great Barrier Island, Manaia and Kennedy Bay.

MetService said heavy rain can also be expected along with the thunderstorms.

"Very heavy rain can cause surface and/or flash flooding about streams, gullies and urban areas, and make driving conditions extremely hazardous."

A severe thunderstorm watch remains in force Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

Thunderstorm warnings for Auckland and Coromandel have now been lifted.

7am: International arrivals have resumed at Auckland Airport this morning after a turbulent 48 hours.

The airport was left completely flooded on Friday and into Saturday, closing its doors until midday yesterday.

Photos from the airport on Friday evening showed the terminal full of water after Auckland was pummelled with torrential rain.

The airport said in a media update just before midnight Saturday that security and border processes would reopen from 3.30am.

The first international flight was scheduled to depart at 6am.

12.17am: MetService is tracking "a number for intense thunderstorms to the east of Auckland".

"Wemay issue a red Thunderstorm Warning for localised areas if they are intense," the meteorological service said early this morning on Twitter.

Aucklanders are experiencing a flood-damaged city after Tāmaki Makaurau saw unprecedented rainfall on Friday.

Thousands of emergency service calls have been made and the Prime Minister is urging people to support each other.

The North Shore Civil Defence Centre was relocated to Massey University's Albany Campus from its original location at North Shore Events Centre on Friday night.

"Those who are displaced or need assistance can access the centre via the main entrance at Gate 1," Auckland Emergency Management said in a statement

The New Zealand Defence Force remains on the ground in Auckland.

Civil Defence have announced payments for some Aucklanders affected by the damage.

If people had to leave their home, were staying away from home at the time of the emergency and can't return, can't go to work, or need help with food, bedding, or clothing, they may be eligible for the payment.