Bay of Plenty thunderstorm: Tāneatua School closes amid flooding
Surface flooding has caused a school to close in Eastern Bay of Plenty after a lightning and thunderstorm passed over the region this morning.
A thunderstorm watch has now lifted for Bay of Plenty and Rotorua.
Tāneatua School was closed as a precaution, the school said on Facebook.
“Please keep tamariki [children] at home today,” the school said.
“All conditions suggest we may have to evacuate tamariki today. It’s hosing down in a thunder and lightning storm. There is a lot of surface flooding. Rivers and drains are at capacity. Some kaiako [teachers] are unable to get to kura [school].”
Thunderstorms lit up the sky over Eastern Bay of Plenty, with one resident saying there seemed to be two storms this morning.
Ōhōpe resident Damian Rahmann said the storm seemed to last around an hour from 6.45am, with an earlier storm hitting around 12.30am.
“[It was] a double wake-up call from Mother Nature. There were periods of torrential rain and strong winds that went along with it at times too,” Rahmann said.
Whakatāne District Council said there was surface flooding on several streets with teams clearing slips and managing areas where water was still receding.
“Please take extra care near waterways, low-lying areas, and known trouble spots.”
MetService said there were just over a 1000 lighting strikes over the Bay of Plenty this morning.
“As the line of thunderstorms moved across this morning the heaviest rain was between 7am and 8am,” a spokesman for the agency said.
“There was 12.8mm of rain recorded at the Whakatane Airport. A little further to the east, at Wainui Te Whara, there was 37mm of rain recorded in the same hour.”
The general forecast for Bay of Plenty and Rotorua today is for showers, possibly heavy with squally thunderstorms, hail and possible downpours.
It comes as the clean-up continues today after a tornado – or possibly tornadoes – ripped through Tauranga early yesterday.
Damage was reported in Ōtūmoetai, the central city, Maungatapu and Welcome Bay.
The damage included roofs torn off, trees snapped and a cabin lifted on to a car.
State Highway 2 through the Waioweka Gorge is closed this morning after additional slips came down overnight.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) said the road would remain closed until it was safe enough for crews to clear.
