An intense burst of hail and rain in central Dunedin left many retailers mopping up and surveying the damage yesterday.
The storm hit about 3.30pm. The Fire Service attended 45 call-outs, and the Dunedin City Council received more than 75 calls, and attended 14 houses affected by flooding.
Many George St retailers closed temporarily, including businesses in the Golden Centre and Hallensteins.
There were reports of lightning strikes in some parts of the city.
In a statement, the council said it was reviewing the performance of its mud-tanks - which failed to operate properly in the 2015 Dunedin flood - but they appeared to have performed well.
The Dunedin Urgent Doctors and Accident Centre was closed until further notice as of 10am this morning, with significant flooding in reception, the staff cafe, and X-ray room.
Staff at the urgent pharmacy, next door, were also mopping up, but damage there was moderate.
Dr Maureen Houstoun said she hoped the urgent doctors would be able to reopen today.
``[Patients] are not all that happy, but what else can we do?'' she said.
The worst-affected area was the staff cafe, where a ceiling panel had collapsed and insulation material was hanging through the roof.
Southern District Health Board issued a statement reminding people to keep ED for emergencies, and to seek advice from Healthline or a GP for minor illnesses or injuries.
A spokeswoman said Dunedin Hospital itself had fared well. The hospital has previously had issues with water leaks, but yesterday there were just two, in a plant room, and near the radiology department. It caused no disruption to services, she said.
Dunedin Public Library closed for a short time after internal drains were overloaded. Water leaked on to electrical fittings, causing them to emit smoke and set off the fire alarm, arts and culture group manager Bernie Hawke said.
``We've subsequently had electricians and plumbers checking the building and we've isolated the electrical circuits that had been affected.''
``After we had the all-clear from the fire brigade, we then allowed customers and staff to re-enter the building,'' Mr Hawke said.
The library reopened after about 50 minutes.
Golden Centre general manager Simon Eddy said the mall closed for about 45 minutes following ``a little bit of flooding''.
He anticipated all stores would reopen today.
The mall was closed to ensure customer safety, because of wet and slippery floors, he said.
``It's exactly what we would anticipate would be likely to happen with that amount of water falling.''
MetService meteorologist Ciaran Doolin said the 13.6mm of rain that fell within an hour was not unusual.
``Thunderstorms can be a lot more than that. This one was fairly standard for a thunderstorm.''
In its statement, the DCC said George St and St Andrew St were the worst affected.
``Playfair St, Oxford St, Surrey St, Forbury Rd, Bay View Rd and Glen Rd were flooded, as was the area around Wharf and Fox Sts.
``Parts of Mosgiel and Kaikorai also had surface flooding.''
The DCC said it was about half-way through cleaning the city's 8000 mud-tanks.
