Heavy rain in town causes flooding chaos
A burst of heavy rain caused flooding in Te Awamutu, damaging Christmas stock in shops and causing the roof of a cafe´ to collapse.
A number of Fire and Emergency Services attended several flooding spots around the town, south of Hamilton, due to flooding yesterday afternoon.
Northern communications fire shift manager Paul Turner said they had multiple jobs due to the weather.
Crews from Te Awamutu, Cambridge and Hamilton were used in the clean-up.
The downpours came amid warnings for severe thunderstorms for the region.
The owner of Robert Harris Te Awamutu cafe was stunned when the heavy storm hit the Waikato town.
Victor Cao said it had been raining heavily for about two hours before a downpour broke through his cafe’s roof.
‘‘There was some water coming out of the roof. We moved the customers from the table and cleared the cafe. Then the roof came down.
‘‘It was really loud, the rain was very heavy.’’
Cao said there was hail along with the heaviest rain he has heard.
He was in his office and staff came and got him at about 2.15pm when the downpour caused damage to his cafe.
A Hamilton fire unit sucked out a lot of the excess water. He said it was an older building with small pipes.
For Beds R Us the weather also brought bad luck.
The store officially opened on Saturday and is now facing the prospect of thousands of dollars worth of damage from the sudden downpour.
Bev Cooper was in her office when her employees called her to see water pouring out of the ceiling.
‘‘It initially looked like someone standing there with a garden hose and then it spread,’’ Cooper said.
‘‘It was absolutely torrential rain, it was short, sharp, fast and furious for about 15 minutes.’’
At Paper Plus, owner Murray Green was also counting his losses after water poured in to different areas of his store.
The most damage had occurred in the toy section, not what Green needs a month out from Christmas.
‘‘The toys, we can’t get the stock.
‘‘And if we can get the stock, it can’t be delivered before Christmas.’’
He has been in Te Awamutu for 22 years and has not seen anything like it.
‘‘It was very loud, people were not venturing out that is for sure. The rain was travelling sideways.’’
St Patrick’s Catholic School staff and students described the change in weather as ‘‘quick and violent’’.
Principal Shelley Fitness said the heavy rain caused flooding at the bottom of their school in Rewi St.
‘‘We had quite a few phone calls from parents who were stuck in traffic and not able to park down the bottom, so we had to redirect their children to the top of the school,’’ Fitness said.
‘‘But the children were so excited, especially about the hail.
‘‘If they had their PE gear, we allowed them to go out and play in it.’’