Weather: More heavy rain, flood fears in Nelson, Marlborough - Kaitaia cut off by slips
Marlborough, Buller and Nelson Tasman remain in a state of emergency this morning because of severe flooding and a second dose of heavy rainfall overnight.
The wet weather temporarily closed Nelson Airport this morning, with flooding on the airfield, but by 8am water had receded enough for it to reopen.
Flight information would be on their website, but travellers should contact their airline for specific flight inquiries, a post on the airport's Instagram page said.
There was 36mm of rain recorded at Nelson Airport between midnight and 6.30am, MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said.
"That's still quite a lot of rain to fall ... especially when the ground is already quite saturated, so any rain will just run off."
In Takaka, 25mm of rain has fallen since midnight.
The rain would continue in the top of the south this morning before easing later this afternoon, Makgabutlane said.
Police were warning of treacherous driving conditions across Marlborough due to slips and surface flooding, and have advised Nelson–Tasman motorists to limit their travel to essential travel only.
A person was critically injured in a crash on Boundary Rd in Takaka last night, a police spokeswoman said.
The crash involving one car occurred when it left the road and collided with a tree just after 10pm. The injured person was taken to Nelson Hospital in a critical condition.
Meanwhile, this morning residents in Redwood Valley near Nelson have been asked to conserve water after an outage in the Redwood Valley rural water supply scheme, Nelson Tasman Civil Defence said on Facebook.
The water supply to the city's water treatment plant has also been damaged and is operating at a lower capacity than normal, they wrote."To maintain Nelson's drinking water, some areas of Stoke will receive water from the Richmond water supply. Changes are also being made to the water network throughout Nelson city to help reduce demand, so residents may notice a reduction in their water pressure."
Conserving water wherever possible would help everyone on the city supply, they wrote.
In Marlborough, the Rai River had its biggest flood on record on Thursday night, and the nearby Tunakino Valley has had more than 760mm of rainfall since Tuesday.
Marlborough mayor John Leggett said the main issues for his council were in the Rai River catchment and northwest into the sounds.
"When you look at State Highway 6, which is our connection with Blenheim through to Nelson, that road has taken a major, major hit and it's going to take days to be able to clear that to be able to allow traffic through."
The alternative route, State Highway 63, which runs alongside the Wairau River, is also closed, effectively cutting Blenheim and Nelson off from each other.