Metservice is forecasting some easing in heavy rain sweeping Tairāwhiti, but a red rain warning is still in place until midday Sunday.
Tairāwhiti Civil Defence said more than 40 roads were closed, and 35 families were sheltering in evacuation centres as of Friday night. The region is under a state of emergency until Sunday.
More than 150 people had evacuated their homes, and about 14 families were cut off by floodwaters in the Tolaga Bay region.
On Saturday morning, police said State Highway 50 between Ongaonga and Tikokino was closed due to surface flooding.
MetService predicted a drop in rainfall and intensity — but Civil Defence said these remained significant amounts, and people should not become complacent.
70 to 100mm of was expected to fall south of Tolaga Bay, and 150mm to 200mm north of Tolaga Bay. Coastal and low-lying areas could now expect 40mm to 80mm.
Peak rain intensities had also dropped from 15mm to 20mm per hour, down from 20 to 25mm.
Orange heavy rain warnings were in place for Hawke's Bay, Taihape and Manawatū, as well as in the Nelson and Marlborough regions until 7pm tonight.
Tai Rāwhiti Civil Defence said 11 evacuation centres were open, while another five were on standby.
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz urged residents to get in contact if they needed help.
"Our region is already so saturated, so we are expecting more landslides, we have a lot of surface flooding already on our roading network," she said.
"We are asking our community to be our ears and eyes on the ground to let us know if there is any place that they need assistance, and we will come and help them."
She said the area was prepared to weather the storm, and some communities had pre-emptively evacuated ahead of this weekend.
Fire and Emergency sent two crews in late on Friday to help with flooding in Tai Rāwhiti.
It said one crew left from Hawke's Bay at 5pm and another landed from Auckland at Gisborne at 8.30pm.
They could help in multiple ways, Assistant National Commander Steve Turek said in a statement last night.
A separate flood rescue crew in Auckland had not been sent.
Any water rescue, if required, was being carried out by Surf Life Saving crews, Turek said.
This was standard practice in Tairāwhiti, and FENZ had "the utmost confidence in the arrangement" to meet local needs.
"We are working within a declared state of emergency and therefore under the control of Tairāwhiti Civil Defence," he said.
"The flooding currently being experienced, while significant, is not beyond the capability of local multi-agency resources."
FENZ began training six flood rescue teams after Cyclone Gabrielle, but most of them were not fully equipped yet or operational until mid-July.
However, the Auckland team has been standing up for longer, since shortly after the January Auckland Anniversary Day floods.
Mood gloomy in rural community as cyclone clean-up already delayed
It comes as cracked roads and bridges have separated families. (Source: 1News)
A Tairāwhiti farmer said the mood was gloomy in the rural community.
Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Toby Williams said farms were already fragile so any rain would have a big impact.
He said many farmers gave up on cyclone clean-up work a few weeks ago because it was too wet and dangerous.
"Things aren't great if we're honest, it's very wet," he said.
Williams said weather events this year and over the last two years had taken a toll on farmers and others in rural communities.
"Morale started to really wane in farmers and with our rural residents and town residents, it's just really tough to be constantly dealing with weather warnings," he said.
Williams said with another week of wet weather ahead, people should get off the farm for a break if they could, and talk to someone if they were feeling anxious about the weather.
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