\u201cThey were up there in that howling gale and rain clinging to their roof all night. They never had any wet weather gear, they just had some torches fortunately.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir house this morning is just completely surrounded by debris.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maree Brownlie said the camping ground opposite the property where a family were rescued off the roof had \u201cbasically been annihilated\u201d. Photo \/ Maree Brownlie<\/p>\n
Brownlie said the camping ground opposite that property had \u201cbasically been annihilated\u201d.<\/p>\n
She understood the wh\u0101nau were staying with family now.<\/p>\n
She said \u201cboulders\u201d, \u201chuge pine trees\u201d and debris had left local roads and the highway impassable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are just slips everywhere along the highway, blocking basically every few houses; it is impossible to get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had complete road dropouts by the bridge just on the other side of the hill, so the road to Gisborne is out completely.<\/p>\n
Maree Brownlie said the slips along the road in Te Araroa were \u201cnot just a bit of debris\u201d and would require large earthmoving equipment to shift. Photo \/ Maree Brownlie<\/p>\n
\u201dWe\u2019re screwed because the Waioweka road is out, and now this route around the coast is out. A lot of people are really cut off, badly cut off.”<\/p>\n
Much of the township had been devastated in the stormy weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomes are surrounded by debris and flooding up to the windows,\u201d Brownlie said.<\/p>\n
\u201dI just feel so fortunate a slip came down behind my house and turned left right at my back gate.<\/p>\n
She said the slips along the road were \u201cnot just a bit of debris\u201d and would require large earthmoving equipment to shift.<\/p>\n
Some were still sliding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the problem, some of these are still actually active.\u201d<\/p>\n
Damage in Te Araroa after severe weather hit the North Island on Wednesday. Photo \/ Maree Brownlie<\/p>\n
She said a lot of small businesses along the East Coast through to \u014cp\u014dtiki would feel the impact of the weather event, particularly as its aftermath coincided with the Auckland Anniversary weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the season that a lot of coast businesses really need to get them through the quiet winter, so that is going to be a downer for everyone with businesses along here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Te Araroa-based Kai Kart Takeaways & Cafe is staying open today after heavy rain devastated the township.<\/p>\n
Employee Michael Martin said a lot of locals were getting around on horses and four-wheel drive vehicles to help out where they could and get debris off the roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cMyself and my bosses decided we are going to open for five, six hours today, just so road workers, locals and stuff, if they are hungry and don\u2019t have food they can come in to eat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the Kai Kart is doing that, across the road the Four Square is helping out Civil Defence with food packages and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the road from the town centre to Hicks Bay had been flooded and Waione Rd had been \u201ccovered in big rocks, dirt, mud, everything\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard at the moment, but everyone in the community seems to be focusing and trying to help out all of the people who need it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s own home on Waione Rd was mostly fine through the heavy rain overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a little bit of flooding, but that was only because our drains get blocked quite quickly. So basically our grass, our footpath, walkways and stuff like that, they flood, but the house is still intact, so not any flooding inside the house.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been a couple of trees that fell over in front of our house and driveway. If we had left one of our vehicles there, it definitely would have been broken down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is actually quite surprising how bad it got. Now, after all of our rain, we\u2019ve got bright sunny skies and hot weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
An urgent evacuation took place at Punaruku around 3am.<\/p>\n
Hicks Bay was flooded, and the nearby bay of Onepoto was cut off. A slip on the hill above Hicks Bay was pushing water through the motel, and clients were moved into the restaurant for safety.<\/p>\n
Slips on State Highway 35 near Hicks Bay. Photo \/ NZTA<\/p>\n
The Hikuwai River peaked at about 10m overnight, with rainfall around 20mm an hour at its height, \u016aawa Tologa Bay Civil Defence area manager Greg Shelton said.<\/p>\n
About 15 families either self-evacuated or were moved to relatives\u2019 homes from Tolaga Bay last night.<\/p>\n
Storm damage at Punaruku Bridge near Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast. Photo \/ Tair\u0101whiti Fire and Emergency<\/p>\n
Shelton told Newstalk ZB that everyone was moved by nightfall and no one needed to be housed at the local emergency centre.<\/p>\n
As of 7.30am today, there were no reports of homes being inundated, although Civil Defence is continuing to assess the damage.<\/p>\n
The area received just over 100mm of rain overnight.<\/p>\n
State Highway 35 between Okitu and Tolaga Bay reopened at 9.40am, while the road remained closed from Tolaga Bay north to P\u014dtaka as crews continued to assess damage from slips, flooding and debris.<\/p>\n
Back in urban Gisborne, it was \u201ceerily quiet\u201d on the Taruheru River overnight, according to Tair\u0101whiti Civil Defence.<\/p>\n
Two people from a Harris St residence were taken to the House of Breakthrough Welfare Centre.<\/p>\n
The Gisborne District Council opened emergency wastewater valves at the Wainui and Oak St pump stations at 1.20am to prevent wastewater from overflowing back into people\u2019s homes, and on to roads, causing a significant health risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team did as much as possible to avoid it, but the network was inundated six times its normal capacity with rainwater from widespread surface flooding and the intense rainfall,\u201d a post on Facebook read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe discharge affects city rivers and Waikanae beach. Contact with these waterways is likely to pose a risk to health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are notifying Hauora Tair\u0101whiti Medical Officer of Health and the water users and sports groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents were advised against swimming, fishing, or gathering shellfish in affected rivers and directly adjacent beaches for at least five days after the valves are closed.<\/p>\n
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said there was a choice between having sewage on residential property or \u201cwe do this\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not what we want to do, but when we see rain like this, no system can accommodate this.\u201d<\/p>\n
A local state of emergency was declared at 5pm on Wednesday after MetService issued a red rain warning for Gisborne north of Tolaga Bay and an orange warning for the rest of the region.<\/p>\n
Stoltz said the decision to lift the rain warnings was very good news.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can see the rain easing, also up the coast,\u201c she said. \u201cThere is extensive damage up the coast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stoltz asked the public to inform the council or Tair\u0101whiti Emergency Management about any damage to infrastructure that needed to be checked.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us know. We need people to be our ears and eyes on the ground. We can\u2019t be everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stoltz said there was \u201ca massive piece of SH35 missing close to Te Araroa\u201d.<\/p>\n
There were slips on SH2, which NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA was \u201ccomfortable\u201d about being able to clean up soon.<\/p>\n
Some local forestry roads, like Tauwhareparae Rd, have been closed overnight.<\/p>\n
A large tree has fallen near the 7km mark on Tauwhareparae Rd. Photo \/ \u016aawa Civil Defence<\/p>\n
Stoltz said city bridges were inspected at 2am, with staff looking for woody debris.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all okay. For us, the tidy up begins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stoltz said \u201ca few people\u201d evacuated from low-lying areas in the city to the House of Breakthrough church.<\/p>\n
Several marae also took evacuees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so extremely proud of how our coast wh\u0101nau opened marae and were proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Highway 35, Hospital Hill near Te Araroa. Photo \/ NZTA<\/p>\n
Stoltz said civil defence was doing a great job and had had a lot of practice.<\/p>\n
Planning had started two days ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had meetings on Tuesday morning and afternoon, yesterday, every few hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are well prepared and well connected with the communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stoltz said communities needed \u201ca big shout out\u201d for being responsive when asked to evacuate or reach out to neighbours.<\/p>\n
The council said the weather system was \u201cpassing through\u201d with rain clearing from noon across the entire region.<\/p>\n
\u201cRiver levels will either be peaking or will have just peaked and starting to fall through the morning and return to safer levels in the afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hikuwai River rose rapidly, and although not as high as earlier forecast, it still reached significant levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cRainfall was particularly intense on the north of the East Cape, and the rest of the region experienced sustained heavy rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rainfall south of Tokomaru Bay came in slightly under forecast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey were up there in that howling gale and rain clinging to their roof all night. They never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,143494,13990,1061,4510,42333,2109,24925,71,24387,12506,1345,11551,78,111,43,139,69,90,2847,18560,66146,11426,30279,8690,165,143495,8528,376,4998,3608,30859,102,4741],"class_list":["post-245350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-araroa","tag-below","tag-children","tag-dark","tag-debris","tag-family","tag-flood","tag-from","tag-gear","tag-gisborne","tag-home","tag-hours","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-only","tag-rescued","tag-roof","tag-rushed","tag-tairwhiti","tag-te","tag-their","tag-torches","tag-trapped","tag-water","tag-weather","tag-were","tag-whnau","tag-with","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245350","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=245350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}