North Island deluge prompts evacuations

NEW ZEALAND – Severe weather has caused flooding and disruption for parts of the central North Island.

About 200 people were evacuated in Hawke’s Bay yesterday morning, and about 120 tourists were trapped by slips near Taumarunui.

More than 300mm rain had fallen in Hawke’s Bay within 24 hours and thunderstorms in the area were to bring further downpours overnight.

The heaviest rain was expected to hit Wairarapa, including the Tararua District and Hawke’s Bay, from Hastings southwards.

A heavy rain warning was also in place for the Wairoa District and Gisborne.

About 200 Napier residents were evacuated from a school, campground and homes in a riverside settlement north of the city.

People returning to Eskdale Holiday Park this afternoon found it strewn with debris, mud and silt.

Campground resident Arthur Yarnold was woken at 6.30am with a warning the Esk River was about to breach its banks.

“So we sort of started to organise ourselves and waited a little while but we could see it creeping up and creeping up and then when it got probably just before this levee bank, we decided to evacuate.”

The force of the waist-high water moved trees and debris throughout the campground, even picking up and flinging a cabin against the fence-line, he said.

The last time this campground was flooded was when Cyclone Bola hit – exactly 30 years ago in what remains the country’s most devastating and costly storm.

More than 60 students from Havelock North Intermediate were also evacuated from their school camp in Rissington.

Principal Julia Beaumont said they were sleeping in tents.

“Everything was all good until about midnight when the rain really picked up. So this morning, with the worsening weather, the teachers just decided it was time to come home.”

A Metservice forecaster, Tom Adams, said the heaviest rainfalls so far had been inland in central Hawke’s Bay due to a very slow moving front bringing thunderstorms.

- rnz