4 Jul 2012

Flooding forces evacuations in Katikati

12:14 pm on 4 July 2012

About 10 people in Katikati in the Bay of Plenty have had to evacuate their homes due to flooding on Tuesday.

Excessive flooding in the area earlier caused the closure of part of State Highway 2 just south of the town forcing north-bound traffic to use State Highway 29 via Tauranga.

Northern communication centres say there have been no other major incidents caused by the weather.

The Fire Service says flooding in Katikati had eased by midnight and there was no major damage to any homes. People who left their homes were to be allowed back on Wednesday.

Earlier, torrential rain caused flooding in Auckland. More than 13 millimetres of rain was recorded at the MetService's airport site in the hour to 2pm when a normal shower would measure less than 1 millimetre.

The Fire Service was inundated with about 150 calls about flooding since midday. The North Shore and the west of the region were the worst-affected areas.

Vector said several areas were affected by power cuts for a time, including Warkworth, Beachlands, Clevedon, Maraetai and Whitford.