Floods in Wellington, New Zealand (and an earthquake)

The drought gives way to a deluge and high winds. Despite what is written here, there is no let-up in the rain. There was also an earthquake which I didn't feel.

Power cuts and widespread flooding in capital

A deluge has caused widespread problems across Wellington, with roads and shops flooded and power outages affecting the city.

Radio New Zealand,

6 May, 2013

The weather has eased on Monday night and flood waters are starting to recede, but 86.6mm of rain has fallen since 9pm on Sunday.

The stormy weather also brought flooding and major disruption to parts to the top of the South Island and cut power in Auckland.

In Wellington's northern suburb of Grenada, a crash has left one person dead and another seriously injured.

Traffic lights in parts of the central city have been affected and police warned motorists to expect delays and drive carefully in the conditions.

There is water on the north-bound lanes of the Hutt Road, in the central city on Aotea and Lambton quays, on Adelaide Road and at the Basin Reserve. Buses were diverted around inundated roads throughout the day.

At Wellington Airport, high winds are continuing to disrupt flights on Monday night. A spokesperson said five have been cancelled and others have been delayed, however some flights are still operating.

Power outages

About 900 homes in the suburb of Johnsonville were without power for a few hours on Monday night due to the bad weather. A spokesperson for lines company Wellington Electricity said the outage occurred at 6pm.

Earlier in the day, 134 central city homes and businesses lost power when a basement housing Wellington Electricity equipment was flooded. The company said power has been restored to all but one customer, whose switchboard was damaged.

The Accident and Urgent Medical Centre in Adelaide Road was forced to without electricity and send several patients to nearby Wellington Hospital when their back-up generator was also affected by the flood. Cars in the medical centre's basement were partially submerged during the rain.

Widespread flooding

Shops in the central city were flooded, while flooding also affected suburbs including Hataitai, Kelburn, Brooklyn and Karori.

Roads were closed and cars stranded in the suburb of Kilbirnie, and there was flooding near the Basin Reserve in Newtown. The Moa Point tunnel near Wellington Airport was also flooded.

In Alfred Street, off Adelaide Road, water almost reached windows of parked cars and workers in an office block were unable to get out of the building for a time.

There was also flooding on Grays Road, north of Porirua. Police said delays were expected and motorists should take care.

The Fire Service attended about 50 callouts in the space of two hours to clear stormwater drains and replace manhole covers. The Wellington City Council received more than 280 calls over a similar period of time with people asking for sandbags and for help unblocking drains.

Gales hit Auckland

Gales in Auckland on Sunday night, gusting up to 150 km/h (=93 mph)  in the west of the city, cut power to about 3000 properties.

Lines company Vector said power was restored to most places quickly overnight, but outages continue, with more than 500 homes without power in western areas on Monday night.

Vector said 308 homes in Muriwai and 216 in Waimauku are cut off after branches fell on power lines.

Spokesperson Sandy Hodge said crews have been working to restore power to the area but have been delayed after finding more lines down.

Ms Hodge said Vector hopes to have power back to all homes by Monday night.

The Transport Authority says despite the bad weather, no incidents are causing concern on Auckland's motorways.

South Island

In the South Island, heavy rain caused flooding and slips on a 5km stretch of State Highway 1 between Blenheim and Seddon.

Police advised caution from Welds Pass to Seddon which had been down to one lane during the morning. Both lanes were open by midday on Monday

Flooding in Wellington

Wellington rattled by sharp quake

A sharp earthquake shook the capital this afternoon, but it failed to rattle most Wellingtonians.

NZ Herald,

6 May, 2013

The 3.7-magnitude quake hit at 4.19pm, was 22km deep and centred 30km east of Wellington, GNS Science said.

The Fire Service said it received no calls about any damage.

More than 2300 people reported feeling the shake, some from as far north as Taupo.

APN's Wellington group sales manager Andrew Horan works in central Wellington and said the shake took him by surprise.

He was talking on the phone at the time and had to hang up to get out of the building.

"I just said `I'm getting the hell out of here'.

"I think for the age of the building we're in, it just shook more than probably normal.''

It had been a while since the last earthquake, he said.

The quake lasted a few seconds and was widely felt in the region, with many taking to Twitter to describe what they felt.

Most seemed unfazed, with many people tweeting they blamed their children for being too boisterous.

One tweeter, @KalistaCampbell wrote: ''#eqnz thought it was the wind #rookiemistake''.

@HRManNZ Little wrote: "shake for Wellington to brighten up our gloomy day #eqnz''.

Another tweeter, @JordanMcCluskey noted: "Wellingtonians don't get under tables or in door frames during an #eqnz , they tweet and crack wise''.

But one tweeter registered a small amount of alarm.

@jjwtweeted: "I work in a yellow stickered building (meets 16% of code) in Wellington: I really hope ''#eqnz'' isn't my last ever tweet.''