Slips, surface flooding sees road closures across North Island as wild weather continues to batter parts of the North Island.
What you need to know:
- Northland is cut off from Auckland after slips and flooding overnight.
- Coromandel, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay are under heavy rain warnings
- Torrential rain in and around Auckland has caused some flooding
- A slip has closed SH1 from Waipu to Brynderwyn
- Mandatory evacuation orders in place for Esk Valley.
9.05am: SH35 between Gisborne and Tolaga Bay is now open with warnings in place, however it is closed up to Te Puia Springs.
With multiple closed, Wairoa, Gisborne and Tolaga Bay are now effectively cut off.
9.00am: Gisborne and Wairoa are effectively cut off as all connected highways leaving the region are closed.
SH2 between Napier and Wairoa and between Gisborne and Opotiki have been closed.
SH35 north of Gisborne is also closed up to Tolaga Bay, as well as SH38 from Wairoa to Lake Waikaremoana.
SH2 between Wairoa and Gisborne is open, but warnings are in place due to flooding.
8.15am: SH1 is now open through the Topuni area, Waka Kotahi have said.
8.05am: Some roads across the North Island are closed following wild weather and slips overnight.
State Highway 1 is closed between Brynderwyn and Waipu until further notice, SH16 is closed at Stoney Creek Rd due to flooding and SH16 north of Cleasby Hill Lookout due to a slip.
A full map of the current road closures can be found here.
8.00am: Thames-Coromandel Civil Defence controller Gary Towler told 1News there were two “very large slips” in the region but that the district had fared well.
“It was a wet and wild night, we’re getting reports in every few minutes of debris and small slips right around the Coromandel Peninsula,” he said.
“We’ve got multiple reports already since daylight, roading crews are out there now, you can get around but it’s going to be delayed.”
Towler said officials in Coromandel received four updates from MetService ahead of the rain yesterday which was “unheard of”.
However, so far in the already battered region, there is no major damage.
7.55am: Fire and Emergency have told 1News there were 112 weather-related calls yesterday.
Twelve calls were related to people trapped in cars because of flooding.
Fire and Emergency said most of the calls were from the lower Northland and upper Auckland but they started to slow down around 9pm.
7.48am: A severe thunderstorm watch remains in place for Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay.
The National Emergency Management Agency advises that as storms approach people should:
- Take shelter, preferably indoors away from windows
- Avoid sheltering under trees, if outside
- Get back to land, if outdoors on the water
- Move cars under cover or away from trees
- Avoid streams and drains as you may be swept away in flash flooding.
7.40am: Severe thunderstorm warnings are in place for Hauraki and western Bay of Plenty.
MetService said Waihi and Waihi Beach can expect to be hit with thunderstorms and heavy rain.
"Very heavy rain can cause surface and/or flash flooding about streams, gullies and urban areas, and make driving conditions extremely hazardous."
7.00am: There is currently no road access between Auckland and Northland due to a slip and heavy rain, Waka Kotahi have said.
The slip is near the intersection of State Highway 1 (SH1) and Otioro Rd in Topuni, with multiple local road closures through Mangawhai.
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