Night of heavy rain in Rotorua prompts warnings

Following a night of heavy rain Rotorua residents and visitors are being warned to take extra care on roads in and around the city and district, and to avoid swimming or taking fish from swollen streams.

Rain drenched Rotorua and surrounding areas over a 10 hour period from Friday evening with an intense spell recording 52mm of rainfall between 2am and 4am.

Rotorua District Council engineering services manager Andy Bell said the storm was a virtual repeat of last weekend’s weather event but "probably more intense and of shorter duration". He said it had resulted in many of the same problems experienced last weekend.

“As a health precaution we’re warning residents to avoid swimming or taking fish from rivers and streams that pass through urban areas and where they discharge into Lake Rotorua. This warning will remain in place for a couple of days and follows reports of some sewage overflows at the city wastewater treatment plant and a number of sewer pump stations.

“We are also warning people to take extra care on roads and to minimise travel where they can.

“There have been slips on roads throughout the district, reports of branches and trees coming down, and surface road flooding in many areas.

“While the heaviest rain appears to have stopped and the weather warning now lifted, the storm’s effects will be felt for some time and council crews will be out working over the next few days.

Lake Rotorua passed its maximum levels this morning and while flows from swollen rivers and streams mean it could continue to rise for a period of time it was not expected to cause major problems at this stage.

A number of local roads and state highways have suffered flooding and slips. State Highway 5 (Rotorua – Tirau road) has a diversion in place near Lake View Golf Course, with traffic having to use Dansey Road as an alternative.

State Highway 30 south of the city (Rotorua – Atiamuri road), and east of the city (Rotorua – Whakatane road) has a number of slips and is down to one lane in places with some traffic delays likely.

Slips have also been reported on a number of other roads and council crews are fully mobilised making them safe.

In the Rotorua city flash flooding occurred in several spots with areas around Tarewa, Sunset and Ford roads amongst the worse affected. For many property owners this is the second weekend in a row that they have had to deal with flooding.

Mr Bell said Rotorua District Council crews had been working throughout the district since the early hours of the morning and the council’s rescue team had been working with police to make sure residents were safe. He said clean-up work would take a number of days.