Road slips, road closures and heavy rainfall
The lower North Island is being battered by heavy rain, with authorities telling people in Wellington to limit travel.
What you need to know:
- Some roads have flooded around the region, with NZTA Waka Kotahi saying SH2 near Petone had one northbound lane closed.
- Police said on social media flooding and slips had been reported on SH2, particularly between Petone and Silverstream. They are warning people to take care driving
- A train was hit by rockfall on the Kāpiti line and reversed away from it so commuters could get off at the Paekākāriki station.
- Hutt Valley High School closed due to burst water main
- Wellington Region Emergency Management Office is urging residents in the Greater Wellington region to work from home today if they can, due to heavy rain in the region.
Chair Anita Baker told RNZ she was expecting heavy rain in another hour. She said teams were meeting about whether to kick in emergency responses.
- Flooding and slips have been reported on a number of roads, including parts of State Highway 2, particularly between Petone and Silverstream. Police ask motorists to take care by reducing speed, using headlights and watching your visibility.
- Lower Hutt battered by heaviest rainfall in the region overnight
- Cars being removed from Hutt City carpark due to flooding.
- The Riverbank carpark in Lower Hutt is closed due to flooding, with contractors removing the cars currently parked there.
- At 7.48am SH2 is wet at Melling in Lower Hutt and traffic is backed up
Weather warnings:
- An orange heavy rain warning is in place for Tararua Range, Kāpiti Coast and north Wellington.
- heavy rain watch was also in place from 8am to 6pm for Horowhenua.
- Some roads have flooded around the region, with NZTA Waka Kotahi saying SH2 near Petone had one northbound lane closed.
- An orange heavy rain warning is in place for Tararua Range, Kāpiti Coast and north Wellington.
- A heavy rain watch was also in place from 8am to 6pm for Horowhenua.
Keep up to date with latest updates on the Stuff website.
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Driven On The Akatarawa Rd Lately?
If so, its good to know you are still alive and reading this.
We have a function to go to over Christmas up that way and having heard a few hairy stories about the road, I went up there on Thursday to check it out. The road's ok, narrow and winding, but not much worse than a Wellington hill suburb. What was pretty scary was the behavior of other drivers. Three vehicles heading the other way at speed would have crashed into me if I hadn't been pulled off the road. I had pulled in to check the address when a truck came flying past, taking up all of the narrow road at speed. There is no way the driver would have been able to stop had they come around the corner immediately in front of me. The other two drivers came hurtling past as I had turned in to turn around and come back down the hill. They were also driving at speed and taking up most of the road. Coming back down I passed another car coming up and estimate that the safe speed to pass another car was about 30-35 kms.p.h. So, now we're thinking, do we go to the function or not.? Feels a bit like we're taking our life in our hands going up there. Drivers appear to be overconfident, and they are courting serious injury.
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