‘Waves in the shop’
BP customers, staff stranded as thunderstorms batter Northland
A group of 12 motorists were stranded in waist-high swirling water in a flooded Whanga¯rei petrol station last night, as severe thunderstorms battered the city.
Northland was pummelled yesterday by fierce winds, drenching rain and lightning as well as a tornado, with homes flooded, people trapped in cars and part of State Highway 1 closed.
But Whanga¯rei was particularly hard hit last night with 50mm of rain in one hour around 7pm and a further 35-60mm expected across the region to midnight.
At the BP petrol station on Riverside
Drive, Parahaki, water started seeping under the door about 7.30pm and by 9.30pm, it was completely flooded.
BP staff member Matiu CooperMepham told the Weekend Herald a group of customers were trapped at the station and would likely be stuck overnight.
“In the deepest spot it’s probably waist deep. The whole place is pretty much under water. There’s waves coming in the shop when people drive past,” Cooper-Mepham said.
“I think they’re all pretty much busy [Emergency Services]. There’s not much we can do.”
But despite being stuck, CooperMepham said the stranded group of staff and customers were staying calm.
“We ain’t going nowhere. Everyone’s pretty much chilling out talking and drinking coffee and eating pies.”
A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said firefighters were called to 200 incidents in the central Whanga¯rei area in the four hours to 10pm.
Two Civil Defence centres were set up for people who had to evacuate flooded homes.
Murray Soljak, of Northland’s Civil Defence Emergency Management, said last night it was not a state of emergency but he expected a very busy night.
In Onerahi, near the airport,
Derek O’Brien said his bakery The Real Cornish Pasty Company next to his home was flooded after floodwaters had come straight down the street overwhelming drains.
“It’s like a tsunami coming down the hill.
“Everything in there is just floating around in the water.”
Around the rest of Northland, a tornado struck off the coast at Tupou Bay near Mangonui at midday yesterday, homes were flooded and roads closed as a deep low remained over the region.
Niwa Weather reported 500-plus lightning strikes across the Northland region yesterday, and 125mm of rain in the Far North.
Last night emergency services had received multiple reports of people trapped in their cars because of flooding on State Highway 1 near Puketona in the Far North. Residents in the area were also choosing to abandon their homes because of flooding.
State Highway 1 was last night closed between Moerewa all the way through almost as far as Kaitaia with multiple slips and the road flooded between Ohaeawai and Kawakawa.
MetService explained a low pressure system was causing the severe weather.
“The low has nowhere to go. This weekend’s weather will be a rinse and repeat of [Friday] as the low continues to direct a cloudy, northeast flow across the north, and a ridge maintains settled weather to the south.”
MetService forecaster Gerard Bellam said conditions in Northland could be serious again today with further rain expected.
“Unfortunately we’ve got periods of rain. Some possibly heavy falls, and there are some thunderstorms also possible north of Whanga¯rei.”
Heavy rain and strong winds also caused problems further south yesterday.
A large slip had also closed State Highway 25 last night between Hikuai and McBeth Rd after heavy rain and wind battered Coromandel. It was expected to remain closed overnight.
After high tide and steady rain yesterday, Thames Coromandel Civil Defence controller Garry Towler was urging motorists to avoid travel on the southeastern seaboard roads.
However, MetService’s Bellam said rain in the Coromandel was to ease today.
South of Coromandel, power outages were reported in nearly 150 homes, as strong winds ripped powerlines and trees to the ground. Strong winds battering Te Aroha for the past few days left 86 homes in the dark, and trees flattening powerlines have affected 65 properties in Tapu.
Thirteen people had to stay an extra night at the Pinnacles Hut and were escorted down yesterday.