Tuesday, October 10, 2017
THIS section in front of Waiotahe Drifts, next to State Highway 2, is beginning to resemble a lake with water ponding that’s now occurring. Photos Ross McCullough OB3093-1
Ross McCullough
WITH the water table in the Opotiki district already well elevated, the recent heavy rain has left the ground that much more saturated.
This could pose problems if more rain is to fall once this weather front passes, with the water not able to escape anywhere, and problems associated with ponding exacerbated.
The Metservice issued a heavy rain warning for the Bay of Plenty from 9am Sunday through to 6pm yesterday.
Up to 160mm of rain was predicted to accumulate in the ranges and between 80 and 120mm elsewhere.
Stuff had reported that rain, from a slow-moving low just west of the North Island and a front associated with that was inching east over the North Island, could continue falling through Monday in parts of the Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, and Hawkes Bay.
Heavy falls were expected in the Eastern Bay through to Monday evening, which up until around midday yesterday was certainly the case with bouts of heavy rain bucketing down at regular intervals.
“That front kind of stalls there where it is now,” MetService meteorologist Mike O’Connor told Stuff early yesterday morning.
“We might see Whakatane ease this afternoon but anywhere east of there will still be getting plenty.”
The New Zealand Transport Agency had not reported any slips or road closures in the Opotiki district as of about 11am yesterday.
Together, the MetService and Opotiki District Council had warned that heavy rain might cause streams and rivers to rise rapidly, and that surface flooding and slips were possible, with driving conditions likely to be hazardous.
Rainfall statistics from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council showing that at its Otara gauge at Opotiki Town Wharf, 12.5mm of rain fell on Sunday with the total for the start of the week already at 46mm.
The total rainfall recorded last week was 38.5mm with 83.5mm recorded so far for October, and the whole of last month’s rainfall 115mm.
It’s a similar pattern across the other rainfall gauge sites, with 53mm of rain falling at the Waioeka Cableway site this week, compared with the 25.5mm of rain last week. Last month’s rainfall total there was 255mm.
To start the week, at its Otara Browns Bridge gauge site, there had been 34.5mm of rainfall compared with 22mm last week, and 45mm of rain so far this week at its gauge at the mouth of the Waioeka Gorge.