1 Feb 2023

Watch: Update on rain and flooding from Auckland Emergency Management

9:07 am on 1 February 2023

Auckland Emergency Management says some people may be waking up to damaged properties after another heavy downpour overnight.

Watch the briefing from about 8am:

Controller Rachel Kelleher says the city has been hit by heavy rain and strong winds overnight.

"In some places that rain was more bands of heavy rain coming through, then in other parts of the region we've had more heavy, solid, ongoing rain for periods of time.

"The weather system is sitting slightly further south now than forecast, with a heavy band of rain currently passing over the North Shore and central city out to the west, but that now appears to be moving south and we're hopeful that that will be end of this last heavy section of rain that we've been experiencing," Kelleher said.

MetService would be providing another update later this morning, but at the moment the red warning north of Orewa was due to expire at 8am and the orange warning for the rest of the region would expire at 10am, she said.

The first part of Wednesday night was relatively quiet in terms of callouts, but has ramped up early this morning.

She is aware of trees down, including on a house in Mt Albert and Whitford.

"Whilst the rain might move off today, there is still a chance of impacts from things like treefall - because the ground is so wet, that it creates a level of instability, particularly if the wind picks up. Given the wind we had last night, people might be waking up to find damage on their property they hadn't expected."

There are reports of flooding and landslips in Devonport.

Only a few people used the new evacuation centres in Wellsford, Warkworth and Kumeu last night, she says.

Providing an update from Auckland Transport, she says there are no trains running on the Western Line, three units are stuck due to flooding and slips; there were no passengers on board.

Reports of Awhitu Peninsula being cut off due to slips are being checked out, she says.

Fire and Emergency NZ's Ron Devlin said since about 6am, they had dealt with 63 callouts around the region. He appealed to people not to ask for help for flooded basements at present - lines need to be left open for those facing emergencies.

"We had a quietish night, very high winds… The events this morning are mostly across Devonport, Northcote, Ellerslie, Mt Albert, Greenlane. But I want to stress the rain didn't reach the point that was predicted, which is a great thing, and so we're quite comfortable with the amount of events that we're attending."

He says search and rescue teams are on standby.

"We would ask people only to call 111 if it's life-threatening or property threatening.

"I just want to assure people that the current volume of calls is well within Fire and Emergency's business-as-usual operations, and we are ready to support you as and when you need it."

Roger Ball from National Emergency Management says the situation seems to be stable in Northland "and the impact is not significant".

NEMA will be watching closely as the weather moves on to Coromandel and Waikato.

"The indications at this early stage are that we may not have as much rain out of this event as was originally forecast."

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