By Sarah McDougall
A state of emergency remains in place in central Hawke's Bay tonight as the region deals with the aftermath of heavy rain this week, shutting off beachside towns and forcing the evacuation of dozens of residents.
Access to southern Hawke's Bay beaches Blackhead, Kairakau and Mangakuri is restricted to essential services and residents with permits only, while no access is available to Aramoana and the southern end of Pourerere Beach.
The state of emergency would be reviewed tomorrow, Central Hawke's Bay Civil Defence emergency management officer Bruce Kitto told NZPA this evening.
"Everybody's been evacuated that has to be," he said.
About 65 people were evacuated from Aramoana, Kairakau and Mangakuri, though some residents chose to stay.
"There's access in to a lot of those beaches now so people were able to go back to them with permits," Mr Kitto said.
Two farm owners remained in Aramoana with a staff member each, but were in constant contact with Civil Defence and could get out by motorcycle if needed, Mr Kitto said.
Civil defence today began holding community meetings to inform residents about what was happening in their community, he said.
A slip on Kairakau Rd had developed a number of cracks and the road would be closed to traffic tonight, Central Hawke's Bay District Council spokeswoman Donna Moorcock said.
It was expected to take many weeks to reopen access to Aramoana, with road access to the southern end of Pourerere Beach closed indefinitely, she said.
Police were patrolling the coastal communities.
Meanwhile, the water supply may be restored to the northern Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa tomorrow, Wairoa District Council spokeswoman Sonia Anderson told NZPA tonight.
A land slip damaged the main line yesterday morning cutting off the town's water supply.
Engineers were hoping to have a temporary water line running tomorrow afternoon, Ms Anderson said.
They were also working to repair the main line.
Schools, kindergartens and early childcare centres in the area would be closed until Wednesday at the earliest, as a precaution, Ms Anderson said.
Wairoa town has a population of about 4000 people, with another 4500 in the district.
Water restrictions continued for the town, she said.
Water tankers would continue to supply households with water until the temporary line was established, Ms Anderson said.
The tankers are periodically pumping water into the town supply for residents to replenish household water stores and carry out general household tasks. Supplies are rationed to 20 litres per person.
The Earthquake Commission (EQC) had received 124 claims from the Hawke's Bay storm but that number was expected to grow significantly, EQC chief executive Ian Simpson said today.
EQC covered landslip damage to buildings, with some cover for land damaged by storm or flood.
Meanwhile, WeatherWatch.co.nz is warning that the top half of the North Island is in for a rough night, with severe gales expected from Northland to eastern Waikato. Widespread rain is also falling.
The poor weather is in stark contrast to that of the South Island West Coast, which today basked in record temperatures for May. Hokitika hit 26degC, Westport 25degC and Greymouth 24degC, Philip Duncan of WeatherWatch.co.nz said.
Previous records were between 21.7degC and 22.6degC.
But on the other side of the island, Cantabrians were not so lucky with cloudy skies bring crisp highs of just 10degC-13degC.
NZPA