Heavy rain has continued to pound the country, causing several families to evacuate a Tasman camping ground.
The owner of the Quinney’s Bush camping ground decided to self-evacuate the area after heavy rain caused the Motupiko River to rise, Nelson Tasman Civil Defence controller Jim Frater told APNZ.
“[He] arranged for the Tapawera School be made open, some families indicated they may go there, but apparently nobody did, but some decided to self evacuate and go home or move in with friends, others moved to high ground.”
The rising river touched the side of the State Highway, but did not cause any other problems overnight.
But surface flooding in Golden Bay created vehicle access problems around Pohara and Tata Beach area.
Nelson’s Rocks Road remains closed after a slip about 4pm yesterday.
“They hope to have it inspected and cleaned up, subject to geotechnical advice, hope to have it open by later this afternoon,” Mr Frater said.
Meanwhile thunderstorms lit up the skies around Whangarei and the Bay of Islands overnight and torrential rain pounded Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula.
The main rain band had now eased in Northland and the upper South Island, and was currently easing in Auckland, WeatherWatch analyst Philip Duncan said.
The terrible weather has forced New Year’s Eve celebrations to be cancelled in Mount Maunganui and Palmerston North.
Story by APNZ/NZHerald.co.nz/WeatherWatch.co.nz
Photo by Mike Condon
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Doug Bowker on 31/12/2011 5:10am
It is drizzling at Waimamaku and it looks like the weather of the past few days is breaking up but the barometer is over to “stormy weather”.
Last night’s lightning display was also down a fair stretch of the NW coast.
I, also, note that metservice states it’s rain radar images for the past hour are less than 10 minutes apart but quite often they’re up to 30 mins behind real time.
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