18/06/2023
Here we go again🥺
🤞🤞🤞😒😒😒😒
⚠ UPDATE MONDAY 19 JUNE, 5PM:
Kia ora Central Hawke’s Bay!
It’s been a wet and soggy day across the district, but we were relieved to have the orange heavy rain warning downgraded earlier today to a heavy rain watch. This will remain in place until 8pm tonight. If there are any changes, we will update you.
Thank you for your patience and understanding today. We appreciate the sound of rain on the roof is more triggering than relaxing these days particularly for our community who were directly affected earlier this year.
Roading update
Our crews have been busy today, working closely alongside Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and our contractors at Downers as our roading network was closely monitored. We have had a few issues on our roads, but teams have been working hard to clear slips and fallen trees.
The following roads remain impacted from the rain over the last few days:
- Taylors Slab on Herrick Street closed due to flooding
- Hiranui Road closed due to flooding
- Pōrangahau Road has scouring around the 13km mark, traffic management in place
- Braeview Road is reduced to a single lane due to a damaged culvert
For a full list of impacted roads across our district visit - https://tinyurl.com/5t34r78m
Flood protection network
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council earlier issued an update reassuring community that the region’s flood protection networks are holding up: https://tinyurl.com/w66utfau
They have a number of webcams set up on bridges in our district with these sites sending through images hourly for monitoring. Currently our river levels are either stable or beginning to drop and rainfall levels are sitting at less than 10mm an hour, giving us no reason for any major concern. You can find out more about environmental monitoring here - https://www.hbrc.govt.nz/environment/river-levels/
We do know that the rain causes slips and further damage to our roads, adding pressure to our systems so of course we are actively monitoring and working to minimise impact on our communities.
We will continue to monitor throughout the night and if the situation changes we will be updating our website and social media, we ask that you help us by sharing our messages. In the meantime, we ask you to take caution on the roads and to continue to report issues to us on our 24/7 helpline – 06 857 8060. Kia kaha everyone.
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⚠ UPDATE 11:30AM:
A reminder that our weather has been downgraded to a RAIN WATCH, however our teams are still closely monitoring river levels and are out and about across the network, here is the latest update on our roads 👇
- Taylors Slab on Herrick Street closed due to flooding
- Hiranui Road closed due to flooding
- Pōrangahau road has scouring around the 13km mark, traffic management in place
- Ngahape Road is closed at the 15km mark due to a fallen tree
- Braeview Road is reduced to a single lane due to a damaged culvert
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⚠UPDATE MONDAY 19 JUNE, 10AM:
Our crews are responding to several issues on our roading network, please take extra care when travelling on our roads and continue to report any issues you come across - 06 857 8060
- Ngahape Road is closed at the 15km mark due to a fallen tree
- Braeview Road is reduced to a single lane due to a damaged culvert
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UPDATE MONDAY 19 JUNE, 9:00AM:
MetService New Zealand have downgraded our weather warnings to a RAIN WATCH.
Rainfall accumulations are no longer expected to exceed warning criteria, which is welcomed news!
As always we will continue to keep you updated and our teams are closely monitoring river levels and our roads.
If you need to report anything of concern please do not hesitate to get in touch with us anytime 24/7 - 06 857 80 60
Take it easy on the roads and stay safe Central Hawke's Bay ❤
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Todays heavy rain watch has now been upgraded to an Orange Heavy Rain Warning as at 9pm this evening through to midnight tomorrow (Monday) night.
Up to 100 - 140mm of rain is expected about the ranges, with there still being uncertainty on the distribution and intensity of the heaviest rain - most of this rain is forecast for tomorrow.
In Central Hawke's Bay river levels are expected to reach '5 year' rainfall levels, which could reach across river berms to the toe of stopbanks in Waipawa and Waipukurau and cause localised flooding and ponding in rural areas.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council will be actively monitoring stopbank repair sites in the event that river levels increase.
We appreciate concern is high - particularly for those affected by Gabrielle, and should things escalate we have plans in place.
Stay safe out there Central Hawke's Bay, and we'll keep you posted if anything escalates or changes.
