{"id":244950,"date":"2026-01-21T20:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244950\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:49:09","slug":"northland-weather-heavy-rain-eases-after-red-warning-and-evacuations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244950\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland weather: Heavy rain eases after red warning and evacuations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Whang\u0101rei<\/a> District remains under a state of emergency that was declared on Wednesday for an initial period of seven days, as heavy rain continued to saturate already sodden ground.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, Green MP H\u016bhana Lyndon praised the community for its resilience.<\/p>\n

She had spent Tuesday doing welfare visits and delivering kai at the north-east coast near Ngaiotonga.<\/p>\n

Having seen the devastation first-hand, Lyndon said there was \u201creally good will\u201d in the community with people wanting to lend a helping hand.<\/p>\n

She said there was a great \u201cwairua of kotahitanga\u201d [spirit of unity], \u201cof everyone mucking in together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents had a can-do attitude that was not unsurprising, Lyndon said, given the familiarity of the situation following Covid-19 and Cyclone Gabrielle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re familiar with this, we\u2019ve done this before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the strength of rural communities, is really the way that people mobilise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyndon was particularly concerned at the threat of waste getting into the waterways, particularly as the wastewater treatment plant at \u014cakura was down.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we get into the clean-up people will relax … we will forget we\u2019ve had septic [waste] in our waterways.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u014cakura was one of the worst-affected areas since rain set in during the early hours last Sunday. <\/p>\n

Police and Civil Defence evacuated 22 homes because of the risk of continued landslides from hillsides in the area. <\/p>\n

Affected residents were told they wouldn\u2019t be able to return until geotechnical teams had assessed the area as safe. <\/p>\n

Slips and flooding caused widespread disruption to roads and farming operations across Northland, especially in the Whakapara-\u014cakura area.<\/p>\n

In the Far North, 14 local roads were impacted, including full closures on R\u0101whiti Rd, where a bridge was washed out in Sunday\u2019s initial overnight downpour. Waikare Rd was also closed after a washout.<\/p>\n

Far North Acting Mayor Chicky Rudkin said the Far North District<\/a> Council\u2019s civil defence emergency operations centre \u2013 which started on Wednesday \u2013 would be open for a second day today. <\/p>\n

Rudkin said the Far North District Council\u2019s district-level centre had been set up in the face of the week\u2019s serious weather warnings.<\/p>\n

It adds to Whang\u0101rei District Council\u2019s civil defence emergency operations centre, which was set up during the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"NgaiotongaNgaiotonga kaum\u0101tua Mane Kiwikiwi (second from right) enjoyed a visit from (from left) Ngaiotonga-raised Nicki Wakefield, Green MP H\u016bhana Lyndon, Acting Far North Mayor Chicky Rudkin and volunteer Ngawaru Munroe. Lyndon was visiting flood-affected community members on Tuesday and delivering kai from Ng\u0101tiwai including break, milk, fruit and water and checking on welfare.<\/p>\n

Both have been supported to a degree by the regional-level Northland Civil Defence, operating out of Northland Regional Council.<\/p>\n

Rudkin said the situation facing the community was \u201cpretty harsh\u201d with road and other challenges.<\/p>\n

Power outages were reported across several areas, with Top Energy and Northpower reporting hundreds of homes without power at various points, including at R\u0101whiti, Herekino-Broadwood, Whirinaki and Whangaruru.<\/p>\n

Northland Regional Council rainfall monitoring recorded particularly intense downpours, with Touwai near Matauri Bay measuring 27.5mm of rain in just one hour on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Many affected Northlanders chose to evacuate voluntarily, making the most of four Ng\u0101tiwai marae and other places that functioned as Civil Defence-type evacuation centres.<\/p>\n

Rudkin said everybody could be extremely heartened by the response of contractors and others working hard to clear slips and more.<\/p>\n

\"RussellRussell Road in M\u014dkau was closed with slips and flooding. Photo \/ Denise Piper <\/p>\n

It had been lovely to see kotahitanga in action around the rohe (region), she said.<\/p>\n

Rudkin said people should not be taking weather warnings lightly.<\/p>\n

They needed to be ready for the worst possible scenarios, rather than simply hoping for the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake sure your little family, or your big family, is okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei Mayor Ken Couper said the community had reacted well, but it spoke to how people were becoming used to such weather events.<\/p>\n

He urged people to adopt a \u201ccautious approach\u201d moving into today. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re in an affected area, stay tight, do what you have to do only,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

People in need of help should contact the council and emergency services when required. <\/p>\n

Couper urged caution around floodwaters, as the district\u2019s wastewater sewage system had been overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of water will be contaminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell said yesterday agencies were on standby nationwide as red warnings were also in place for Gisborne, Bay of Plenty and the Coromandel Peninsula.<\/p>\n

Mitchell, who visited Northland on Tuesday, said he was particularly concerned what could await this region if the weather persisted.<\/p>\n

He praised marae leaders for their support of affected communities.<\/p>\n

Mitchell also praised a M\u014dkau grandfather for his bravery in rescuing his partner, grandson and granddaughter from the swollen M\u014dkau River.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Whang\u0101rei District remains under a state of emergency that was declared on Wednesday for an initial period…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,74,95,34263,9218,4731,22048,29815,143305,60827,50924,2550,5346,19876,54171,305,6559,1304,3025,111,43,139,1067,11225,69,6560,15406,381,1961,6634,1455,4998,3608,23939,8598],"class_list":["post-244950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-across","tag-after","tag-and","tag-awake","tag-before","tag-days","tag-disruption","tag-downpours","tag-eased","tag-eases","tag-evacuations","tag-even","tag-expected","tag-flooding","tag-forecasters","tag-have","tag-heavy","tag-morning","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-northlanders","tag-nz","tag-rain","tag-red","tag-region","tag-this","tag-torrential","tag-warning","tag-weather","tag-were","tag-widespread","tag-worst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}