{"id":5791,"date":"2023-06-22T16:49:24","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T04:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=5791"},"modified":"2023-06-22T16:49:24","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T04:49:24","slug":"residents-in-te-karaka-asked-to-evacuate-as-waipaoa-river-tops-7-5-metres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=5791","title":{"rendered":"Residents in Te Karaka asked to evacuate as Waipaoa River tops 7.5 metres"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weather forecast for Tai R\u0101whiti \/ Gisborne has been upgraded to the highest heavy rain warning level with residents in the Gisborne town of Te Karaka being asked to evacuate their homes.<\/p>\n

MetService has upgraded the alert level for flooding in the Tai R\u0101whiti \/ Gisborne region from orange to the highest alert level, red until midday Sunday.<\/p>\n

It is forecasting a prolonged period of rain which would be heavy at times with 200-300mm of rain expected about and north of Tolaga Bay, up to 150mm about the ranges and up to 100mm in coastal areas south of Tolaga Bay.<\/p>\n

The rain was expected to cause dangerous river conditions and significant flooding, with slips and flooding likely to disrupt travel, making some roads impassable and potentially isolating some communities, the MetService warning said.<\/p>\n

Residents in Te Karaka have been asked to evacuate as the Waipaoa River topped 7.5 metres and Tair\u0101whiti Civil Defence says Te Karaka Area School is an evacuation centre.<\/p>\n

Chief fire officer Jamie Simpson said many areas that would need to be evacuated were already empty following Cyclone Gabrielle but anyone who did need to evacuate should do so during daylight hours.<\/p>\n

Several roads are now closed in the region.<\/p>\n

State Highway 35 around the cape from Gisborne to Ruatoria is now closed, as is is the inland route SH2 between Ormond and Matawai.<\/p>\n

Eastern District Police said flooding was making driving conditions dangerous in many areas and they were assisting on the roads.<\/p>\n

They urged people to avoid any unnecessary travel and to report any slips or flooded areas.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Gisborne’s Te Poho o Rawiri marae is gearing up to receive evacuated residents.<\/p>\n

Marae chair Harata Gibson said they were ready to accept people from anywhere, not just Te Karaka, where evacuations had been ordered by Civil Defence.<\/p>\n

“We’ve only just received the official notice from Civil Defence, although our people were advised early this morning that it would be best for them to make the decision.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, the p\u0101 is just gearing up to receive wh\u0101nau who need shelter.”<\/p>\n

Tolaga Bay holiday park manager said Dion Milner the place was waterlogged and there was nowhere for the rain to go.<\/p>\n

The \u016aawa river was at about 8 metres, and while people were not evacuating yet, Dion Milner said he feared the worst was yet to come.<\/p>\n

“Everything’s sort of okay at the moment, but if they’re predicting what we’re predicting with this other load coming, it’s gonna be interesting.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The MetService rain radar at 2.50pm on 22 June 2023.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Screenshot \/ MetService<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

MetService has extended its existing orange rain warning for Tair\u0101whiti until midnight on Sunday with heavy rain expected to batter the region right through until the end of the weekend.<\/p>\n

The heavy rain has already closed roads and brought down slips and Greg Shelton from Uawa Civil Defence said river levels were rising.<\/p>\n

“Our concern is with the rain with heavy downpours we get a lot of flooding, not river related, just roads, infrastructure is probably starting to fail us now just land starting to move, culverts back up, that kind of thing.”<\/p>\n

\"Bridge<\/p>\n

Bridge on Whatatutu Road, just off State Highway 2, north of Te Karaka.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0NZ Police<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Bridge on Whatatutu Road, just off State Highway 2, north of Te Karaka.<\/p>\n

There had not yet been any evacuations in Tologa Bay, as most people in at-risk areas relocated after Cyclone Gabrielle, he said.<\/p>\n

MetService meteorologist Andrew James told\u00a0Midday Report<\/i>\u00a0a prolonged period of rain which would be heavy at times was forecast for Tai R\u0101whiti \/ Gisborne.<\/p>\n

“There’s a burst today, it’s still raining tomorrow, another burst of heavy rain on Saturday expecting about 250 to 350 millimetres of rain in that northern part of the region over that time.”<\/p>\n

More than 220mm of rain had fallen in the Raukumura Ranges by midday Thursday, with 50-60mm having fallen at Gisborne Airport, he said.<\/p>\n

Heavy rain warnings are also in place Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty west of Te Puke until 3pm on Friday with up to 160mm expected to fall, The Ruahine Range and Hawke’s Bay from SH5 southwards until midnight Saturday with up to 150mm of rain forecast and Marlborough south of Ward until 3pm on Saturday with up to 250mm forecast.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

The weather forecast for Tai R\u0101whiti \/ Gisborne has been upgraded to the highest heavy rain warning level with residents in the Gisborne town of Te Karaka being asked to evacuate their homes. MetService has upgraded the alert level for flooding in the Tai R\u0101whiti \/ Gisborne region from orange to the highest alert level, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5791","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\/5791","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=5791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5793,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions\/5793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}