At least 2200 homes without power between Gisborne and Hawke's Bay
A video taken from the Tiene Kenia bridge shows the Waipawa River has risen over nine metres after heavy rain, isolating the town of Te Karaka from the north and south.
Heavy rain and strong winds have caused power cuts to at least 2200 customers between Gisborne, Wairoa and Hawke's Bay.
Tairāwhiti Civil Defence and Emergency Management and Gisborne District Council's flood warning team were continuing to monitor river levels and rainfall in the district on Tuesday.
Although rainfall was expected to ease later in the day, current conditions were still of concern, Civil Defence said.
More severe weather has battered Gisborne and Hawke's Bay overnight.
Civil Defence emergency manager Louise Bennett said any travel that was not urgent should be delayed or postponed.
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Rural school buses in the Gisborne/Tairāwhiti area were advised not to run in the morning, but parents should ring individual schools to check whether they were open.
The Napier-Taupō Rd suffered surface flooding on Tuesday due to bad weather.
Haumoana School in Hastings was closed on Tuesday due to sewerage failures.
Board of trustees chairman Greg Duff said toilets were not flushing on Tuesday due to the weather.
Workers were attending the school on Tuesday morning to sort the issue, and if it was not sorted by the end of the day the school would put in place a contingency plan, he said.
River levels are running high in the Gisborne area after a night of heavy rain overnight. It's just a week since flash flooding ravaged Tolaga Bay.
After being hit by wind gusts of more than 45 knots, Napier Port said it had closed its container terminal as a precaution for almost two hours.
About 10am, winds had reduced and the terminal was reopened.
Havelock North volunteer fire brigade attended a house on Tanner St on Tuesday morning in Havelock North where a tree had fallen on a home.
Eastern Network has posted a photo showing how unsecured items can cause damage in severe weather.
A car was stuck in flooding on Shanley Rd outside of Hastings with one person in the vehicle.
A fire and emergency spokeswoman said police and the Hastings volunteer fire brigade were on their way to the scene but there was no immediate danger.
HOMES WITHOUT POWER
Debris and mud covers the Wigan Bridge over the Uawa River in Tolaga Bay on Tuesday.
Power company Eastland Network said Gisborne and the East Coast area was experiencing power cuts, with more than 1572 customers affected between Gisborne and coastal areas including Tolaga Bay and Wairoa.
Unison relationship manager Danny Gough said there were about 700 customers around Napier and Hastings currently without power.
Gough said rural areas were being hit the hardest.
Surface flooding on the Napier-Taupō Rd on Tuesday.
"Our advice would be customers should be prepared for further outages," he said on Tuesday morning.
Eastland Network said it would do a full assessment on Tuesday and fault crews would begin the task of restoration once it was safe to do so.
"Please be prepared for lengthy periods without power."
ROAD CLOSURES
There were a number of road closures and surface flooding throughout the district, the most significant being State Highway 2, north of Te Karaka, the NZ Transport Agency said.
Early on Tuesday, NZTA said a slip on the Napier-Taupō Road was blocking both lanes, north of Te Pohue.
The Napier-Taupō Rd was closed at 10am. SH2 between Gisborne and Ōpōtiki was also closed at 10am.
There were delays on SH2 between Wairoa and Gisborne with traffic signal control being used at the Tahaenui River Bridge.
Drivers were asked to take caution while driving between Wairoa and Tangoio.
SEWAGE ISSUES
Residents at Te Karaka were asked not to flush their toilets due to the issues with surface flooding impacting the sewerage system.
The Gisborne city wastewater network was flooded, with large volumes of rain water from residential properties on Monday.
Emergency sewer valves at Gladstone Rd, Peel St, Owen/Seymour Rd and Fitzherbert St were opened into the city's rivers about 8.30pm, to prevent sewage from overflowing back into homes and onto roads.
HAWKE'S BAY
Hawke's Bay Civil Defence said there were no significant issues overnight.
A severe weather warning was issued by MetService on Monday night for Gisborne, valid until 4pm Tuesday. Between 150 and 220mm was forecasted to accumulate on top of what had already fallen.
MetService forecasted between 140 and 200mm to accumulate on top of what had already fallen in Hawke's Bay on Tuesday, with peak intensities of 15 to 25mm per hour.
The heaviest rain in the 12 hours to 5am Tuesday was in the Gisborne ranges, where several gauges recorded around 130mm, MetService meteorologist Matt Todd said.
The deluge comes just one week after masses of forestry debris flooded through Tolaga Bay, a small town north of Gisborne, creating a $10 million clean-up.
- Stuff
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