Following a devastating drought in Northland they have now had bad flooding. The lack of feed supplies on farms will make dealing with the floods more difficult, and the lack of grass will result in a muddy mess for farmers.
RNZ: Northland floods leave homes uninhabitable, farms under water
As the flood waters recede in Northland the full extent of the damage from the weekend’s deluge is becoming clear.
After months of near-crippling drought more than 200mm of rain fell over 10 hours from Friday night.
The main road into Kaitaia remains closed by massive slips.
The Waiharakeke Stream near Kaikohe has slowed to a raging torrent after bursting its banks and flowing into the small town of Moerewa.
Most people have been able to return to their homes, often to find them caked in mud and strewn with debris, and some are uninhabitable.
Moerewa residents are becoming sadly accustomed to the floods, which seem to come every couple of years now.
I heard this one referred to as a 500 year flood, which seems like an arbitrary label, but it highlights the severity of this flood.
There’s a vast plain between Whangārei and Kawakawa could almost be mistaken for a lake if it wasn’t for the tops of fence posts and the farm houses on raised ground surrounded by water.
Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare visited the region yesterday and said it would be a few days yet before the full extent of the damage is known.
Floods closed some of the region’s water treatment plants and Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai said residents are being asked to conserve water for the next few days.
“The quality of the water coming into the treatment plant is just awful and it takes a lot longer to treat that water.
Once the extent of the damage understand more clearly the councils will talk to central government about long-term solutions for flood prevention and repairs to infrastructure, she said.
It’s bad, but it will take time to determine how bad. It will take some time to deal with the damage, and flood prevention wil be a longer term and very difficult project.
Your NZ 
Maggy Wassilieff
/ 20th July 2020The Historic Weather Events site shows that such is the weather of Northland….drought and floods are common events.
The 1934 flood was severe…caused by “phenomenal” rainfall
https://hwe.niwa.co.nz/event/December_1934_Northland_Flooding
Alan Wilkinson
/ 20th July 2020Yes, summer droughts and winter floods are the norm. The nonsense about running out of water is just that. Organising seasonal storage where it’s needed is the only issue. Repairing inadequately designed and maintained roads and waterways is also normal up here. The clay that is rock in summer and soup in winter doesn’t help.
Griff.
/ 20th July 2020Oh dear
The usual nonsense from the usual suspects.
Some one does not know the difference between days and twelve hours.
from maggys link
Alan Wilkinson
/ 20th July 2020Whatever happens is always the fault of climate change. We get that, Griff. We just remember bad weather before “climate emergency”.
Seems hard to argue that was a 1 in 500 year event given some of the numbers in the 1934 event. You would have to know the patterns across the two differing measurement periods.
Kitty Catkin
/ 20th July 2020One reporter didn’t know the difference between milliMETRES and milliLITRES.
One place had had x mls of rain in whatever time it was. The reporter waved a teaspoon around and said ‘ That’s x of these since…’