Te Rākau Whakamarumaru

Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Emergency Management

Emergency management for the Tairāwhiti district

There are currently no weather warnings in place for Te Tarawhiti region.

Weather eases after heavy rain and strong winds battered the region

The heavy rain warning for our region was cancelled Wednesday 26 June. We did not declare a state of emergency in Tairāwhiti. However, we’re thinking of our neighbours in Wairoa.

A slip caused a water pipe break between the Mangapoike dams and the Waingake water treatment plant. For more information on the pipe repair

  • Check local road closures due to slips or dropouts. Contractors are working their way through all the sites, please be patient. Keep checking our website, it’s updated as we get the information from contractors
  • The emergency wastewater valves into the city's rivers were closed on Saturday 29 June at 12.30pm and all discharges have stopped. During intense or heavy rainfall, parts of the city’s wastewater network get inundated with rainwater and the network can’t cope with the volume of water. The sewer system is designed to cope with 400% of the normal dry weather flows. The system was running at 650% when the valves needed to be opened to relieve the pressure. Here’s more information on our DrainWise programme
  • Tell us about any flooding on your residential property, especially when we have heavy rain. Tell us on this form
  • If you’re on a hilly section please check your land and contact us if you notice any cracks, creaking noises, doors sticking in your home or retaining walls leaning. Call us on 800 653 800
  • A reminder to treat flood waters as potentially contaminated – wash hands before handling food.
  • If you have any issues with your septic tank, please contact a registered drainlayer.
  • Please be careful in our public spaces while the environment and trees recover from this latest weather event. Keep a eye on our webpage for facilities updates
A reminder to keep an watch for land movement

If you’re on a hilly section please check your land and contact us if you notice any cracks, creaking noises, doors sticking in your home or retaining walls leaning. Call us on 800 653 800.

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On this page

Weather alerts and road info

The map displays the latest MetService alerts, local roads and Waka Kotahi NZTA state highway information. For more information, see our local road information

Recovery following Cyclone Gabrielle

Please see our Flood Recovery webpage

Civil Defence information and pages

Disasters happen any time - are you prepared?

It's important you're ready to cope on your own for up to 3 days or more. Here's a guide for what you need as a minimum:

  • An emergency plan - where to meet family and how to contact one another if separated.
  • Prepare a grab bag of essential items.
  • Enough food in your home to last 2-3 days.
  • Know where to get water, if your usual supply is not available.
  • Alternative lighting - a torch with spare batteries or a wind up one, gas lantern or light-sticks.
  • Battery operated or wind up radio and spare batteries - don't forget your car radio as a last resort.
  • First aid kit, make sure it includes any essential medications.
  • Blankets, survival blankets or warm waterproof clothing.
  • Alternative cooking methods, BBQ or gas cooker.
  • Store important family documents where you can get them easily.

For more information - Get ready

Emergency status and what they mean

No Civil Defence emergency

Always be prepared, a sudden event can occur at any time.

Weather warning

When MetService issue a new warning the status will change to 'Weather Warning' when the event actually starts the Civil Defence status will change to 'Alert or Activated' depending on the events severity.

Alert or Activated

We've been alerted to a possible situation and Civil Defence is in a monitoring and information gathering mode:

  • MetService and the event has started, or
  • Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, or
  • Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, or
  • Other warning systems such as telemetry / flood warning.

Declared emergency

A state of local emergency declared under section 68 or section 69 of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002. An emergency means a situation that:

  • is the result of any happening, whether natural or otherwise, including, without limitation, any explosion, earthquake, eruption, tsunami, land movement, flood, storm, tornado, cyclone, serious fire, leakage or spillage of any dangerous gas or substance, technological failure, infestation, plague, epidemic, failure of or disruption to an emergency service or a lifeline utility, or actual or imminent attack or warlike act; and
  • causes or may cause loss of life or injury or illness or distress or in any way endangers the safety of the public or property in New Zealand or any part of New Zealand; and
  • cannot be dealt with by emergency services, or otherwise requires a significant and coordinated response under the Act.

State of National Emergency

Declared under Section 66 of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002.