It’s very normal in a storm for a highway to be closed due to bad weather or slips – it’s more unusual to have a road entirely destroyed by storm surge.

For those from Thames to near Coromandel township it may be some time for the highway to be fully repaired after Friday’s storm coupled with king tides and winds that funneled more water into the Firth of Thames slammed the road for severeal hours. 

The weather in the next week looks mostly positive to repairing the badly damaged highway.

– NZTA

– By David Van’t Wout

By David Van’t Wout

– By Ryan Dunseath

– By Ryan Dunseath

– By Ryan Dunseath

– WeatherWatch.co.nz