Two people are missing after a house collapsed at Onetangi, on Waiheke Island, as tropical cyclone Wilma battered the upper North Island overnight.

The house collapsed after being hit by a large slip and is one of more than 200 incidents keeping emergency services in the region busy.

The MetService has issued a severe weather warning for Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorua, and Gisborne for heavy rain through to about midday.

Severe gales were also predicted to hit Northland and Great Barrier Island overnight.

The worst-hit areas include Kaeo, about 30 minutes northwest of Kerikeri, where four people were rescued from their home after waters rose three metres and the back of their house started to slide away. The family had to use a candle to signal to firefighters who picked them up in a rescue boat.

A number of those residents have been evacuated to the local rugby club.

At Pipiwai, north-west of Whangarei, two people scrambled up trees to escape the rising waters.

Elsewhere, four people were rescued from a car in Whakapara after it got stuck in flood water, firefighters rescued a pair of people who were clinging on to logs to keep afloat on SH1 at Okaihau, a landslide crashed into a house in Stanmore bay and properties at Waihi Beach and Riverside in Whangarei have been evacuated.

Flooding has also blocked the main road linking Northland with the rest of the North Island; SH1 is closed through the Dome Valley.

Other road closures included SH11 at Opua and SH1 and 11 between Moerewa and Kerikeri.

The Waitotara Bridge has been washed away meaning there is no access to Whangarei Heads in Northland.

Auckland Civil Defence Controller Clive Manly says there are numerous other road closures and slips.

“There’s about 1,000 properties out of power. We have had five reports of houses being flooded and one of them has been impacted by a slip.”

Military vehicles are being used to access places where flooding has closed roads.

The severe weather is now heading towards Rotorua and the Coromandel. Surface flooding is reported in Tairua, and the Kauaeranga River is expected to burst its banks.

Rainfalls of 100 to 200mm were likely, with rainfall rates possibly reaching 25 to 50mm per hour, which could cause surface or flash flooding, lead to slips and cause rivers and streams to rise quickly.