Storm update - slip damage to house closes road - 3:15pm

Karaka Bay Road on the Miramar Peninsula has been closed to through traffic in front of a house extensively damaged by a landslip this morning.

Residents living north of 335 Karaka Bay Road will have to access the area via Shelly Bay Road until further notice.

Wellington City Council Infrastructure Manager Stavros Michael says the road has been closed for safety reasons and to allow the property to be secured.

Heavy flooding that hit Miramar this morning is subsiding. However emergency services are continuing to pump water from some properties in low-lying areas of the suburb.

Motorists are urged to continue to take care on all roads in the city.

• Middleton Road, between Tawa and Johnsonville, will be open to traffic following the clearance of a tree by about 4.30pm today.
• Motorists on Main Road, Tawa, are urged to take care and be prepared for delays while up to 15 trees are cleared from the slope above the road north of the Tawa shops in the next 24 hours.

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Flooding hits Miramar – please avoid the area

Heavy flooding has hit Miramar, in Wellington’s eastern suburbs, this morning.

Emergency services and City Council workers are working to keep floodwaters from entering homes and businesses in the area.

The entrance to Miramar via the Cutting has been closed – and people are advised to avoid the area until further notice.

An estimated 30mm of rain has fallen in Miramar this morning, causing flooding in low-lying areas.

Meanwhile the renewed heavy rain has brought down slips and caused surface flooding in other parts of the city.

Motorists are again advised to exercise extreme care.

Middleton Road, between Tawa and Johnsonville, is still blocked by trees near Churton Park but it is hoped the road will be clear by about 2pm and in the meantime alternative routes in and out of the area are available. About five large trees came down in the area early yesterday – some as large as 20 tonnes.

Wadestown Road is expected to be open by midday.

Horokiwi Road and Makara Road have re-opened. Slips that closed the Takarau Gorge yesterday have been cleared but the road is marginal.

Council staff and contractors are also hard at work around the city clearing drains, remaining slips and storm debris.

Their efforts are being hampered by continuing rain and we ask people to be patient.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>