Rain ceases but water levels high

Environment Bay of Plenty staff have been working throughout the night to monitor rainfall and river levels and ensuring that pumps were functioning across the region to help reduce the possibility of flooding.

Environment Bay of Plenty Rivers and Drainage Group Manager Ken Tarboton said warnings had been issued overnight for the Mangorewa, Kaituna and Whakatāne Rivers which reached their first alert levels.

“Quite a bit of surface water accumulated in the low lying drainage areas of Kaituna and Rangitāiki Plains and our staff have been working around the clock attending to pumping issues, power outages and weed blockages.”

“We experienced some serious rainfalls with in excess of 200mm recorded at a few sites, however the rain appeared to have ceased across the region by about 2am,” Mr Tarboton said.

Rainfall in the Tauranga City and Rotorua District areas was about 100mm to 120mm. A significantly higher band of rainfall fell in the coastal and inland areas of the Kaituna through to Whakatāne catchments where totals of up to 220mm were recorded.

This rainfall was also significant due to the relatively high intensity rainfall that occurred with a peak intensity of 48mm/hr being recorded by the rain gauge in Whakatāne town.

The Whakatāne District Council activated its Emergency Operation Centre at approximately 11:30pm to deal with flooding and slips in the area and closed down at 3am when waters had receded.

The higher altitude rain gauges in the eastern ranges did not record significantly high rainfalls due to weather system coming in from the sea.

For updated information, visit Environment Bay of Plenty’s website at www.envbop.govt.nz and click on the live monitoring link to see updates of river and rainfall levels around the region.

ENDS

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