28 Apr 2015

Wellington houses, businesses flooded

4:48 pm on 28 April 2015

Torrential rain brought parts of Wellington to a standstill this morning, with more than 30 calls for help to the Fire Service.

The heavy downpours flooded Wellington homes and garages and the MetService duty forecaster said its readings at Wellington Airport showed 32 millimetres fell between 4am and 8am and of that 18mm fell during the peak between 4am and 5am.

Contractors cleaning up remnants of mud and silt that flooded Wright Street, Mount Cook, Wellington.

Contractors cleaning up remnants of mud and silt that flooded Wright Street, Mount Cook, Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Most of the calls for help came from the suburbs of Karori, Newtown and Oriental Bay.

Firefighters pumping out a flooded carpark in Newtown, Wellington.

Firefighters pumping out a flooded carpark in Newtown, Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Pauline Cross arrived at work at Arobake, in Aro Valley, about 5am to find water up to the door.

"... it was pretty much flooded down the whole street and it came into the shop a little bit," she told Morning Report.

"It's never been that bad (before)."

The bakery's delivery truck managed to get through but that sent a wave of water through the front door, Ms Cross said.

Fortunately the early hour meant the truck was one of only a few vehicles on the road, and the rain and flooding had since "calmed down a lot".

"We managed to get our deliveries out. They were just a little bit slower, I think, because of the traffic," she said.

Flood damage at Streetsoundz at the Basin Reserve.

Flood damage at Streetsoundz at the Basin Reserve. Photo: Supplied

The road around Wellington's Basin Reserve was also awash and one car stranded in floodwaters had to be towed out by emergency services. Autumn leaves which have been clogging drains exacerbated the problem.

Council to investigate

Wellington's Council says it will investigate why some businesses near the Basin Reserve roundabout are being flooded repeatedly.

The owner of the car stereo shop Streetsounz Krisna Magan was furious his premises had been flooded again and estimates there is more than $100,000 in damage this time.

He said he tried to get the council to clear the drains but nothing was done.

"They told me it was because the drains weren't big enough to handle the water.

"And I asked why they didn't fix it and they said there wasn't enough money [it would] cost them tens of millions of dollars to fix that."