"Severe weather is causing flooding across the city," said Hutt City Council today, a local government authority in the region of Wellington, which has a population 520,971.
"Our neighbourhood hubs are open across the city if people need shelter. We have crews out monitoring the impacts and supporting the response where needed," the council said.
Some 40mm of rain fell near Upper Hutt this morning, prompting the evacuation of 26 homes in Stokes Valley and Porirua, public broadcaster RNZ reported.
Stokes Valley resident Eugene Grant told RNZ a manhole burst about 7.30am, flooding his street with water and silt. The water was up to 2 metres high from that manhole for about two hours.
“With that bought a lot of water, basically up to our doorways. We could feel it coming through the floorboards and thought ok we need to get out of here. We were just lucky the rain stopped then.”
He said that was pretty scary. “My wife and kids were pretty scared so we got ready to evacuate but by the time we got to Stokes Valley entrance the road was closed so we couldn’t go anywhere.”
Grant said the flooding receded quickly but left mounds of silt. About 10 neighbours were trying to clear it before more forecast heavy rain this afternoon.
A severe thunderstorm warning was in place for Wellington as well as nearby Manawatu, Tararua, Kapiti-Horowhenua and Wairarapa, national forecaster MetService said.
"People are urged to stay alert to these severe weather conditions, with flash flooding likely."
Wellington Region Civil Defence Emergency Management Group spokesman Dan Neely said two further bands of heavy rain were expected about 2pm and 8pm today but it was hard to predict how much rain would fall.
State Highway 58 Pāuatahanui to Haywards and SH59 Paremata to Plimmerton are closed, as is the nortbound sections of SH2 Belmont to Haywards interchange. Eastern Hutt Rd and Paekakariki Hill Rd were also shut.
Neely urged people to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel at those times.
However, authorities said residents should not wait for official warnings and should move to higher ground if they see rising water.
On the West Coast in the South Island, there was also flooding around Westport, and part of State Highway 67 between Waimangaroa and Granity was closed today due to a slip.
Police said there had been significant flooding in the area, especially around the Westport area.
Motorists were asked to delay travel, and if this was not possible drive to the conditions and avoid entering flood waters.
The wild weather comes after the North Island was battered last week by a cyclone that forced evacuations.
- additional reporting RNZ
