Rain has returned to the city overnight.
More than 200 properties in the city have now been red-stickered, declaring them uninhabitable, and more than 1000 properties are yellow-stickered (meaning they have moderate damage and access is restricted).
Waka Kotahi NZ is continuing to urge all road users to adjust their driving to the conditions over the coming long weekend, especially in flood-affected areas.
An Orange heavy rain warning is in place for the western half of Bay of Plenty until 11am today.
Strong winds were already buffeting Auckland last night, with wind speeds reaching 65km/h in parts of the city at 5pm. MetService meteorologist Dan Corrigan said the rain expected overnight was a bigger risk: “We could see more severe impacts in any place where that does occur.”
AEM said Thursday and Friday would bring “perfect thunderstorm weather”.
“Our advice is to keep an eye on the rain radar on MetService’s website.”
MetService meteorologist Jessie Owen said that if thunderstorms were to occur, then they would be localised.
“My advice for Auckland is as always just to keep up with the current forecast, the watches and the warnings and heed the advice of your local council and emergency management,” said Owen.
Further weather watches and warnings are in effect for the North Island.
Eastern Northland south of the Bay of Islands is under a heavy rain watch from 10pm last through to 10am today.
The eastern areas of Auckland, the Hunua Ranges and the Coromandel Peninsula were also under heavy rain watches last night.
An orange heavy rain warning is in place for Bay of Plenty west of about Kawerau, including the Rotorua Lakes District, Western Bay of Plenty District and Tauranga City areas until 11am today.
AEM controller Rachel Kelleher said people needed to be “really vigilant” about weather conditions, especially if they were travelling for the long weekend.
Kelleher said staff were reviewing the state of Auckland’s emergency status - which is due to end today.
Auckland Council building services manager Ian McCormick said his team had been “really impressed” by Aucklanders’ resilience and encouraged people to reach out if they needed support.
Auckland Transport’s Stacey van der Putten said about 1500 flood-damaged cars had been towed across the city.
