Brace for a wet and wild week
Landslips force capital’s residents to evacuate homes.
The wet and windy spring weather — which caused chaos in the Wellington region yesterday — looks set to continue across parts of New Zealand.
Heavy rain swept across the lower North Island yesterday with southerly winds rising to gale strength in some areas.
Multiple landslips forced residents to evacuate their homes and a main arterial route was closed by a fallen tree as the capital was lashed by wild weather.
The unsettled weather was delivered by a low pressure system moving up to the east of the country from the Tasman, said WeatherWatch analyst Aaron Wilkinson.
“The best place to be over the next few days is Fiordland and the southwest corner of the country.”
Heavy rain is expected across much of the North Island tomorrow.
“There is a big front coming in from the Tasman on Monday afternoon which will mainly affect the western parts of the east coast.”
But despite the changeable outlook, it will be warm up north from tomorrow, with 23C forecast in North- land and sunny skies on the east coast.
Weather in Auckland is expected to be patchy today, but should brighten up as the week wears on.
Firefighters were rushed off their feet in Wellington yesterday as the torrential rain brought down trees, flooded houses and caused waterlogged banks to collapse.
Calls started coming in about 7.30am when a slip came down behind a property on Balfour St in Mornington, Fire Service central com- munications shift manager Jan Wills said.
“Residents have been advised that it’s not safe to enter.”
About an hour later, three houses were evacuated on Rangiora Ave in Kaiwharawhara due to another slip.
Sandbags were brought in to protect houses on the street and insurers came to the scene to assess damage.
About midday a third slip threatened a house on Military Rd in Northland, and a bank collapsed on a blind corner on Wadestown Rd to the north of the city.
Firefighters were also called to flooded houses in Kilbirnie and Newlands, and to clear fallen trees blocking roads in Aro Valley and Tawa.
A council spokesman last night said its call centre had received more than 400 calls reporting flooding and slips.
MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said 72mm of rain had fallen at MetService’s main Wellington monitoring station in Kelburn since midnight Friday.
“Typically in November there’s 98mm of rain for the whole month.”
Wellington City Council civil defence local controller Simon Fleisher said because more rain is expected next week people in the region should remain vigilant.