{"id":4323,"date":"2023-05-10T05:13:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T17:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=4323"},"modified":"2023-05-10T05:13:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T17:13:06","slug":"more-than-300-emergency-calls-as-torrential-rain-and-thunderstorms-batter-north-island-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=4323","title":{"rendered":"More than 300 emergency calls as torrential rain and thunderstorms batter North Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heavy rain and thunderstorms have\u00a0battered parts of the North Island<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency received more than 300 weather-related calls for help between 8am and 6pm on Tuesday – with the vast majority in Auckland.<\/p>\n

Police reported more than 250 weather-related jobs between midday and 4.30pm.<\/p>\n

A local\u00a0state of emergency was declared in the country’s largest city<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0flooding quickly occurred once again<\/a>\u00a0after heavy storms in January and Cyclone Gabrielle in February.<\/p>\n

The weather caused gridlock across the city as commuters tried to get home early.<\/p>\n

\"Cars<\/p>\n

Cars stuck in gridlock traffic during heavy rain in Auckland.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Rayssa Almeida<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mayor Wayne Brown made the declaration from Sydney, Australia where he was on council business when the flooding began.<\/p>\n

Brown passed on his responsibilities to deputy mayor Desley Simpson – and was expected back in Auckland around midnight, cutting his trip short.<\/p>\n

The torrential rain has since moved away from T\u0101maki Makaurau but residents were being urged to remain vigilant as it could come back.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Auckland Minister Michael Wood.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Jordan Dunn<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Auckland Minister Michael Wood said people should keep a close eye on updates from Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) overnight.<\/p>\n

He said the key advice was to stay home if possible, take extreme care if out on the roads, and check in on those who may need help.<\/p>\n

Wood said there was a taskforce currently looking at the ways the city should grow, and where houses should and should not be.<\/p>\n

AEM said periods of heavy rain and thunderstorms remained possible but thunderstorm warnings across the region had been lifted except for Aotea \/ Great Barrier Island.<\/p>\n

AEM duty controller Parul Sood said it was important to remember that even as the weather improved, not all streams and rivers had reached their peak.<\/p>\n

“It can take time for the rain that has fallen in the hills to make its way down stream. Therefore, some waterways may still be rising even though the rain has eased.<\/p>\n

“Any more heavy rain could cause surface and\/or flash flooding around streams, gullies, and urban areas.”<\/p>\n

She asked people to stay away from waterways and floodwaters.<\/p>\n

Thirty Rapid Building Assessment teams were expected to start carrying out rapid building assessments throughout the Auckland region from tomorrow morning, Sood said.<\/p>\n

Although Civil Defence Centres and Community Shelters were opened, few people needed to use them, she said.<\/p>\n

MetService said an orange heavy rain warning was in place for Bay of Plenty and Rotorua until 3am.<\/p>\n

Meteorologist Georgina Griffiths earlier said the back edge of the rainfall was now through Auckland and the risk of the high intensity downpours had reduced.<\/p>\n

Everywhere in Auckland had experienced between 30 and 35 millimetres of rain in an hour or less on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SOURCE RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heavy rain and thunderstorms have\u00a0battered parts of the North Island\u00a0on Tuesday. Fire and Emergency received more than 300 weather-related calls for help between 8am and 6pm on Tuesday – with the vast majority in Auckland. Police reported more than 250 weather-related jobs between midday and 4.30pm. A local\u00a0state of emergency was declared in the country’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4325,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions\/4325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}