Wild weather: Heavy rain, flooding in Nelson; rain warnings for Auckland, North Island regions & More Latest News Here – Up Jobs

Communities near Nelson have been evacuated for a second night as the “devastating” wild weather continues to lash the top of the South Island, while parts of the Far North have been cut off by flooding and slips.

A swathe of the North Island from Northland and Auckland through to Taranaki are under orange heavy rain warnings this morning – with hazardous driving conditions, slips and surface flooding expected as wild weather lashes the country.

More rain is to come for saturated Nelson with a rare red heavy rain warning in place as the city faces a third night of downpours. Locals have been warned to conserve water after a failure in the city’s main water supply line – thought to be caused by a slip.

Civil Defence said a secondary pipe was still supplying water, but at a much lower flow rate. The water is still safe to drink.

People should watch for any signs their property was in danger from a slip – including new or growing cracks in building walls or the ground, new mounds of dirt around the property, leaning posts or poles and any sudden pipe breaks. A third night of heavy rain is expected on Friday night through to Saturday afternoon.

“If you see these signs, or feel unsafe for other reasons, you can self-evacuate. If you can’t go to friends or whānau, please go to Saxton Stadium,” Civil Defence said in a 1am message to social media.

Civil Defence Nelson Tasman spokesman Chris Choat said last night all residents on Airlie St in Glenduan, north of Nelson, were being evacuated.

Choat said this was a precautionary measure and authorities preferred to evacuate them early rather than at 2am when high tide was expected.

A Herald photographer in Nelson said army Unimog trucks were being used to ferry evacuated residents to safer parts of the city and region.

Mayor Rachel Reese said the significance of this event on the city “couldn’t be overstated”.

“The span of this is massive and it’s really complex, it’s going to take Nelson years to recover from this.”

She also said that although the high tide at 2am is worrying, it’s the slips that officials are more worried about at this stage.

“The Maitai River is still rising but at the same pace as yesterday, it’s the slips we are more concerned with at this stage, the hill is literally still moving as we speak.”

The Maitai River, which runs through Nelson city, has already burst its banks and floodwater has flowed onto nearby roads and properties.

“The river level is comparative to yesterday for sure, and we are monitoring it closely. We can’t say with certainty that it is going to be higher than yesterday’s level,” Choat said.

Kerry McNamara, a fire station officer in Nelson, rescued an elderly lady from her residence this evening. He said it was a “very dangerous rescue”

Just getting to the house was “sketchy”, McNamara said, and rescuers utilised the help of Land Search & Rescue New Zealand in order to access the property.

After locating the woman, it was impossible to get her out the way they came in, McNamara explained. With the help of the police, they found a safe route from the main road to get her to safety.

“It was probably one of the most spectacular rescues I have been a part of.”

The elderly lady was taken to hospital by police following the rescue, officers said she was stable and coherent but in shock.

Residents around Nelson will wake to the aftermath of the “devastating” wild weather that forced hundreds of people from their homes and will take years to recover from.

Heavy rain caused havoc across the country, virtually cutting off the north from the rest of the country, submerging other routes and sinking a boat in Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour after it broke its mooring and smashed against a rocky sea wall.

In Nelson, intense rain caused significant damage across the city, washing out roads, flooding homes and prompting landslides.

Hundreds of homes were evacuated as emergency response crews moved in to assess how badly damaged the properties were.

Civil Defence controller Alec Louverdis said he was hopeful the assessments could be completed Friday and was “praying” most people would be able to return to their homes.

Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty travelled to Nelson on Thursday and said the damage was extensive.

“We were literally watching a hill just flow on down, it was like you were pouring out yoghurt out of a container, just this thick sludge carrying on down, steady as.

“And also a relatively new development, where the middle of the road had just been washed out, a crater that was deeper than I am tall.”

Most of the rivers on the West Coast were starting to drop by Thursday afternoon, McAnulty said.

Experts say an “atmospheric river” is behind the week’s heavy rain and is likely connected to climate change.

University of Otago senior lecturer in geography Dr Daniel Kingston said earlier in the week the weather event could be more damaging because it comes on top of an already exceptionally wet winter.

Kingston said although this specific weather event had not been analysed regarding the influence of climate change, it was “more than likely playing a role”.

Niwa meteorologist Tristan Meyers said it was being investigated whether or not atmospheric rivers were increasing for New Zealand but, “I’d speculate that it’s in line with what we would expect from climate change”.

MetService said there was expected to be some reprieve in the heavy rain for the upper South Island before it returned this afternoon through to Friday morning.

The national weather authority had issued warnings for either heavy rain and strong winds for much of the northern and western parts of the country, including red warnings for Buller, Westland and Nelson, but these were due to expire Thursday night.

McAnulty said on Thursday the initial concern was that the wild weather was headed toward Golden Bay, however it changed quickly and hit mainly Nelson.

In Nelson, 308 homes had to be evacuated today, including 10 due to a landslide and the rest due to flooding. McAnulty said roughly 20 per cent of the 104 properties assessed today had been yellow or red-stickered.

“It’s clear that there is going to be a long-term impact to the residents of this city.”

A $200,000 mayoral relief fund has been established to help communities in the Nelson and Tasman area.

“There are people that have been displaced from their homes, there is damage to property, there is damage to many areas of this city that this relief fund can assist with,” McAnulty said.

Reese, the Nelson mayor, said the damage from the wild weather was devastating and it would take years for the city to recover.

“It’s going to be a long haul; I think we needed to prepare ourselves for that now … We have got damage throughout the city and … we’ve got damage to people’s homes and homes that are likely to be uninhabitable and that is going to be a challenging scenario for many families.

“[The] recovery, in my view … it’s not going to be over a matter of months, it’s going to be over years.”

Reese said she was concerned about the degree of instability in the hillsides and there was the potential for more slips, flooding and evacuations.

She said the degree of increase in the flow of the Maitai River today was something she had never seen before.

“It really did build very quickly … the velocity of water that has moved from some of these spaces is just incredible.”

Meanwhile, parts of the Far North were all but cut off today after slips in the Mangamuka Gorge blocked State Highway 1, and flooding made the alternative SH10 impassable at Kāeo.

An elderly Kaitāia woman was rescued from her property by an inflatable surf rescue boat earlier today when floodwaters cut her off. Ahipara Surf Rescue Club captain Tony Walker said crew members were called to Kaitāia south after the 75-year-old was trapped in her home by rising floodwaters.

In Auckland, wild winds and heavy rain pummelled the city, ripping a yacht from its mooring. It sank after smashing on rocks in Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour.

I have tried to give all kinds of news to all of you latest news today 2022 through this website and you are going to like all this news very much because all the news we always give in this news is always there. It is on trending topic and whatever the latest news was

it was always our effort to reach you that you keep getting the Electricity News, Degree News, Donate News, Bitcoin News, Trading News, Real Estate News, Gaming News, Trending News, Digital Marketing, Telecom News, Beauty News, Banking News, Travel News, Health News, Cryptocurrency News, Claim News latest news and you always keep getting the information of news through us for free and also tell you people. Give that whatever information related to other types of news will be