With several communities isolated and more heavy rain to come, Whangarei District Council and Far North District Council have each declared a State of Emergency.

The State of Emergency will be in effect for 7 days beginning 2:00pm Thursday 26 March. Whangarei District Mayor Ken Couper says "Declaring an emergency is a step under our legislation which allows Civil Defence to access to emergency powers, granting authority to protect life and property in emergency events under the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Act 2002."

The most commonly-used emergency powers include evacuating premises and places, entering premises, closing roads and public places, removing aircraft, vessels, vehicles, and requisitioning property, equipment, material or supplies. Of these, enabling evacuations is often the key reason for an emergency declaration.

Whangarei District Civil Defence Controller Victoria Harwood says the MetService Heavy Rain Warning (red) is in place until 4:00am Friday.

She says at this stage officials are unsure if they will need to make use of the emergency powers an emergency declaration provides but given the severe weather on its way, they made the decision to make the declaration.

“This will ensure we have those extra powers available to us should we need them.”

Northland Civil Defence – along with all of the region's emergency services and partner agencies - continue to urge Northlanders to take the current weather event seriously.

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