Thunderstorm havoc relentless
Tararua continues to be wracked with thunderstorms as a ridge of high pressure fuels wild weather across the central North Island and Otago.
Traffic grounded to a halt and store ceilings collapsed in the deluge that hit Pahiatua on Tuesday. Woodville got a soaking on Wednesday, and Dannevirke has been hit twice by the short and intense storms.
The first storm dumped 23 millimetres of rain on Dannevirke in less than an hour on Monday, overwhelming drains and causing surface flooding. And the waters rose again when a second deluge on Wednesday afternoon, which peaked at 18.8mm in an hour.
Derek’s Electrical co-owner Kathy Massey had just about finished cleaning up after the first storm when water bubbled up from the storm drain behind her shop for a second time. At first all Massey could do was stand in the ankle-deep water and cry.
The shop stank of wet carpet, and heaters were cranked up to try and dry everything out.
Massey said Wednesday’s downpour was even worse than the first one, and she could barely see out her store through all the rain.
High St was submerged, the water knee-deep in places, and manholes went up like ‘‘little geysers‘‘.
‘‘It was like watching a river from behind a waterfall.’’
On Tuesday, Pahiatua was thunderstruck as 45mm of rain fell in a single hour, collapsing ceilings at five stores.
Motorcycle HQ owner Simon Windelborn was up until 12.30am on Thursday dealing with up to $50,000 of damage the storm had caused his business. He expected to reopen today.
Tararua Alliance manager Chris Chapman said the district’s drainage system wasn’t designed to handle such intense downpours. However, there’s been no damage to the system and the floodwaters were draining away within an hour or two after rain stopped.
Metservice meteorologist Lisa Murray said the wild weather was fuelled by a ridge of high pressure sitting over the country for three weeks.
‘‘It’s unusual to have a high stick around this long, and we’re not sure how much longer that will continue.’’
Murray said there was moderate risk of further thunderstorms around the Tararua Range, which could drop between10 and 25mm of rain in an hour.