Hurricane Season 2011

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Op vrijdag 28 januari 2011 12:25 schreef meteo-online het volgende:

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Zodan dat is dan aardig wat, de neerslagkaart hierboven is van de afgelopen 12 uur, mss 200+mm. Moet er niet aan denken, vriendin van mijn broertje gaat vandaag terug naar Auckland, zal een drama zijn daar

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Cyclone Wilma hits Northland

Flooding has trapped two Kaeo families in their homes and another two people in their car as the remnants of Cyclone Wilma cause havoc across Northland.

Police Inspector Shawn Rutene said slips, flooding and fallen trees had caused a number of road closures.

Emergency services were working to rescue two families were trapped in their homes by the rising Kaeo River, he said.

Elsewhere in Northland, police were trying to rescue two people trapped after logs blocked the road at Okaihau and in the Coromandel two people were trapped in a car.

Emergency services throughout Northland were stretched and police were asking people to keep off the roads, Rutene said.

Police expected when high tide hit around 4am some low lying roads would be impassable due to water.

There was also understood to be flooding in Matakana, Mangawhai and along the waterfront at Paihia.

Earlier, MetService warned that Wilma's remnants would bring heavy rain to Northland, Auckland, Waikato, the Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty and Gisborne.

Rainfall rates were forecast to reach up to 25 to 40mm per hour for a time.

Strong or gale force winds were also forecast. Winds were forecast to reach severe gale overnight in parts of eastern Northland and Great Barrier Island where gusts of 130 km/h were possible, MetService said.

Northeast swells and very rough seas were forecast for eastern coastal areas from Northland to East Cape.

Rain should clear from most areas by midday tomorrow, though it may continue into the afternoon for Gisborne, MetService said.

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The Bay of Plenty, Northland and the Coromandel have a clean up job on their hands after tropical cyclone Wilma battered the regions over night.
For the second weekend in a row coastal towns and rivers were flooded, closing roads and causing evacuations.
The bucketing rain left roads up north underwater, and homes, as well as water and sewage treatment plants were damaged.
State Highway One heading north from Auckland was closed with traffic having to be diverted.
The New Zealand Transport Authority says people should only drive if absolutely necessary, and if they do they should take extreme care.
The Bay of Plenty also copped it again after being soaked last weekend.
On State Highway 2 between Tauranga and Whakatane there were three slips within two kilometres. Trucks were trapped in between them, drivers couldn't get out but they were lucky just to be able to stop in time.
Campers at the Mt Maunganui campground were woken at 4am by the flooding.
Despite the rain, Tauranga City residents are being urged to conserve water for the next 24 hours.
Both of the city's water processing plants have been shut down because of the heavy rain, and a major water main's broken meaning the city's relying on reservoir storage.
Some campers though have still been able to enjoy themselves.
I thought better transport kayaking down than walking down so I thought I would give it a go, says camper Shaun Middleton.
In Waipuna nine patients were evacuated from a hospice as river water surged from the Kaimai Ranges.
We had volunteers with four wheel drives ferrying people back and forwards across the flood, they became our ferry for the day, says Waipuna Hospice CEO Richard Thurlow.
Further north in the Coromandel it was a similar story.
A slip on the Thames Coast road forced the evacuation of two houses, one of which could still come down with the moving earth.
Some of the boulders that have come through are the size of cars. There's a pine tree on the beach that was on the front yard of one of the houses that was evacuated, so it's reasonably dangerous, says Thames volunteer fire brigade station officer Ken Brokenshire.
Tropical cyclone Wilma has now passed over the North Island, however the MetService is warning that gale force winds will hit exposed places in the Far North, Auckland, East Coast and Taranaki.

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Two cyclones threaten flood-ravaged Qld

Communities along almost 2000 kilometres of Queensland coastline are preparing for the first of two tropical cyclones to hit.

By 7pm (AEST) on Saturday, Tropical Cyclone Anthony was about 830 kilometres northeast of Townsville and was expected to cross the coast late on Sunday or early Monday as a category one or low category two system.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is expecting high rainfall for north and central Queensland and abnormally high tides are expected between Townsville and Bowen.

It comes amid concern a second cyclone, named Yasi, will develop from an intense tropical low currently near Fiji and hit the Queensland coast next Thursday.

The area of concern extends 1700 kilometres from Cooktown down to Hervey Bay, including several major population centres - Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Bundaberg.

State disaster management coordinator Ian Stewart urged people living in these areas to prepare.

"The reason we are considering this broader area, is to ensure that the preparations of the community and emergency service personnel are adequate for Tropical Cyclone Anthony ... and a further cyclone Yasi, later in the week," he said.

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Tropical Cyclone Anthony has been downgraded to a tropical low after crossing the Queensland coast but is still causing severe conditions in the state's north.

Tropical Cyclone Anthony crossed the coast near Bowen about 10pm (AEST) as a category two system.

It was packing winds of up to 150 kilometres an hour near its core.

Weather bureau senior forecaster Ben Annells says there has been falls of up to 300 millimetres in the Pioneer River catchment near Mackay.

"That heavier rain is starting to move inland as well and we're starting to see some falls above 50 millimetres through parts of the central interior of Queensland," he said.

Even though the system has since been downgraded to a tropical low, the bureau is still warning of heavy rainfall and damaging wind gusts about the central coast, the Whitsundays, and the northern parts of the Central Highlands and coalfields.

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People in north Queensland have been warned to expect wind speeds of up to 260 kilometres per hour when a "big, ugly sister" cyclone makes landfall later this week.
Emergency Management Queensland (EMQ), police and weather officials are meeting across the state's far north today to discuss the possible threat of Tropical Cyclone Yasi.
The category-one system is north-west of Vanuatu but is expected to intensify before crossing the Queensland coast on Wednesday or Thursday.
Authorities fear the massive cyclone could be as intense as Cyclone Larry, which devastated parts of far north Queensland in 2006.
Queensland Police says it is the "big, ugly sister" to Cyclone Anthony, which caused only minor damage as it crossed the state's north coast near Bowen, south of Townsville, overnight.