Wild weather: Auckland motorways flooded; Northland, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty also in line of fire

Some Auckland homes and motorways have flooded as heavy rain once again wreaks havoc across the city still recovering from Friday’s deadly storm.

Another month’s worth of rain has fallen in Auckland in just 24 hours, with Northland, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty also in the line of fire of the latest “atmospheric river”.

Auckland’s Northern Motorway was closed by flooding in both directions between Esmond and Northcote roads for about 90 minutes this morning, before reopening just before 8am.

Other sections of the city’s motorways have also been severely impacted including the Southern Motorway at Greenlane and Ellerslie-Panmure, and the Southwestern Motorway (State Highway 20) southbound between Queenstown Rd and Neilson St.

State Highway 1 is closed between Brynderwyn and Waipu following slips on the southern side of the Brynderwyn Hills and State Highway 16 is closed between Waimauku and Helensville.

Auckland Emergency Management is advising Aucklanders to avoid travelling “unless necessary”.

Emergency services are dealing with reports of trees that have fallen on homes in Mt Albert and Whitford; and flooding and landslips in Devonport.

There have also been callouts to a range of other suburbs including Hillcrest, Mt Roskill, Onehunga, Belmont, Lynfield, One Tree Hill, Remuera and Greenlane.

Motorists were once again stranded on streets with rising floodwaters forcing them to abandon their vehicles in Greenlane.

A sinkhole also opened up in Swanson, West Auckland, last night, taking out power lines.

So far, more than 100 Auckland homes have been red-stickered and 375 have been yellow-stickered.

Northland is now out from under a red heavy rain warning but is still in a state of emergency.

Coromandel is also in the firing line - a red warning came into effect at 10pm last night - and MetService has extended that to several other areas across the North Island, including Tauranga and Rotorua.

State Highway 2 in the Karangahake Gorge between Waihī and Paeroa was closed by a large slip yesterday afternoon. It has now reopened.

Schools have been closed but the Ministry of Health yesterday afternoon revised its advice for early childhood centres, saying any that can safely open, may unlock their doors for families from today.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.