Civil Defence officials remain on alert in the West Coast, with heavy rain still pelting down and further significant falls forecast.
In Westland, State Highway 6 is closed from Fox Glacier to the Haast Pass Lookout because of flooding and slips.
At Haast, 244mm of rain has fallen in a 24-hour period. About 100mm fell in the six hours from 6pm on Wednesday.
In Westland, MetService is predicting ongoing rain today, with heavy falls on Friday (especially about the ranges north of Fox Glacier), and a severe weather Red warning could be extended.
For Buller, further rain is likely overnight on Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning, and the warning could be extended.
The Waiho River in Franz Josef was being closely monitored and several families living on the south bank of the river had been given the option to relocate to the Franz Josef township for the night, West Coast Emergency Management said. The Haast and Hokitika Rivers are also being monitored.
To the north, a state of emergency is in place in Buller district, where emergency management controller Sean Judd said significant rain was still to come.
Early this morning the rivers near Westport were still within their banks, but Judd said the message remained that people should be ready to leave their homes if necessary.
The district council has distributed more than 23,000 sandbags for people to protect their homes.
Buller Emergency Management has had reports of sandbags being removed from Chorus cabinets that contain fibre and copper network links and is asking people not to take those ones.
Sandbags have been put out elsewhere in both Hokitika and Westport for members of the public to use to protect their properties.
Chorus said it has been doing flood preparations to keep the telecommunications network going, including refuelling generators and putting sandbags and plastic wrap around cabinets in Westport.
- RNZ
