Volunteer firefighters are being credited with saving a young man’s life after he was trapped on the roof of his car in the middle of a raging river.

The dramatic rescue — just one of many in two days of torrential rain across Northland — occurred at isolated Waimamaku, on the west coast near Hokianga Harbour.

Emergency services were alerted about 8pm on Thursday by a 111 call from a woman saying her son had been swept away while trying to drive across a ford to the family home.

He had clambered out of the vehicle and onto the roof, but the river was rising and so fierce he had no way of reaching safety.

Ōmāpere fire chief June Ross and other volunteers who lived nearby went straight to Taita Rd to assess the situation and form a plan, while the rest of the crew brought the truck and rescue gear.

Ross said the 21-year-old was clinging to the top of the car in a “very rough and rolling” river.

“To be honest, he was running out of room on the roof. It was p***ing down and the water was still rising.”

Communicating with him was difficult due to distance and the roar of the river.

They managed to throw him a lifejacket and three rescue lines, so the crew didn’t have to enter the potentially deadly torrent.

Ross convinced him to jump into the water and allow the current to carry him to a quieter stretch of river, where the firefighters pulled him to the bank.

The force of water pouring over the ford meant he would have been dragged under if they’d tried to pull him out by the shortest route.

He was safely on land by 8.45pm.

The rescued man did not appear to be hypothermic, despite being clad only in shorts and a vest, but may have been in shock. He was checked by St John Ambulance.

The man wanted to walk home — requiring an hour-long trek up the valley to bypass the river — but the brigade insisted on taking him to Ōpononi to stay with friends.

Ross said she was proud of her crew for carrying out the rescue in difficult circumstances complicated by wild weather and distraught family members. She had no doubt they had saved his life.

The brigade was stretched due to a shortage of volunteers and most of Thursday’s crew had already put in a long day of work and travel for their paid jobs.

“I’m so impressed with all of them,” Ross said.

More than a month’s rain in 48 hours

While firefighters recover from their efforts the rest of the Far North is starting to mop up after the deluge.

The MetService lifted its orange rain warning at midnight last night and expects mainly fine weather this weekend.

Meteorologist Stephen Glassey said rain would ease to a few showers this morning with fine spells increasing during the day.

Tomorrow would bring a few more showers but nothing significant. Temperatures would remain “extremely warm” for the time of year, a result of the same tropical, moisture-laden air that dropped so much rain on Northland.

The wettest place in the 48 hours to 3pm yesterday was Kerikeri with a whopping 213mm of rain, more than the town’s average 174mm for the entire month.

During the same period Whangaroa recorded 201mm, Kaitaia 150mm, Kaikohe 122mm and Whangārei just 36mm.

The deluge flooded roads, triggered slips, sank boats, and sparked rescues from cars and homes. Some residents in Kaitaia’s Allen Bell Dr opted to leave their homes on Thursday night as the Awanui River threatened to burst its banks but a formal evacuation was not required.

In another incident a 75-year-old woman was plucked from her home on SH1 south of Kaitaia about 2pm on Thursday by volunteers using boats usually deployed in the Ahipara surf.

At least three cars came to grief while trying to cross floodwaters on SH10 just north of Kaeo Bridge; another man was rescued by Kaitaia firefighters when his van was swept off SH1 on Thursday night.

At the height of the flooding Kaitaia was entirely cut off from the outside world.

SH1 was closed by flooding near Rangiahua and south of Kaitaia, as well as a series of major slips in Mangamuka Gorge.

SH10, the usual alternative route north, was closed by floodwaters north of Kāeo Bridge and at Lake Ohia.

SH11 was also affected with a large slip at Lemon’s Hill and flooding at Taumarere.

All flooding is expected to have subsided by this morning but Mangamuka Gorge remains shut.

As of 4pm yesterday five local roads around the Far North remained closed with all but two expected to be open today.

Work to repair slip-damaged Kohumaru Rd, in Doubtless Bay, and West Coast Rd, near Kohukohu, will continue this weekend.

‘An absolutely bloody marvellous job’

Far North Mayor John Carter praised emergency services, Ōmāpere brigade included, for “an absolutely bloody marvellous job”.

“Their work over the past 48 hours has been outstanding. It just shows when you need our community to step up, they do.”

He could not recall ever seeing so much water around Awanui and understood the situation was just as bad further south.

Like many others in the Kaitaia area, Carter feared another prolonged closure of Mangamuka Gorge. That stretch of SH1 only reopened last year after an almost year-long closure due to a landslide in 2020.

Yesterday, he visited one of three significant slips in the gorge. What he saw convinced him it could be a long time before the road fully reopened.

However, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency had assured him the gorge would be open to traffic in one direction by Monday.

Kaitaia, Awanui ‘saved’ by flood scheme

The whole of Kaitaia and Awanui would have disappeared under water if it hadn’t been for a new flood protection scheme, former regional councillor Joe Carr said.

Carr, who chairs the Awanui River Flood Management Liaison Committee, said it was the biggest weather event in the area since 2007. It was also the first real test of the latest work on the 15-year-old Awanui River Flood Management Scheme.

“All of the urban areas in Kaitaia and Awanui have been saved from going under. I’m really pleased with how well the system has worked,” he said.

Low-lying areas of Awanui had, however, been affected with several homes along Kumi Rd in floodwater.

Flood protection work in that area was due to be completed by summer and would have made a significant difference.

“There are definitely still areas that need structural change. There is also still significant work to be done down near Donalds Rd Bridge where the flood protection needs to be lengthened. The main worry for now is for the farming community in these lower regions, particularly around near Kumi Rd and the Whangatane Spillway.”

That community includes Will and Marianne Tye, who have farmed on Kumi Rd for seven years. Their three dairy farms total just over 1000 cows on 200ha.

Thursday’s torrential rain flooded 95 per cent of their first farm, half their second farm, and 20 per cent of the third, forcing them to move stock to cow sheds on dry ground.

“We’ve never seen so much water here in all the time we’ve been here,” Marianne Tye said.

If the floodwater lingered it could have had “disastrous consequences” for their business, Will Tye said.

Lines down, boats sunk

Falling trees taking out power lines and repair crews unable to cross floodwaters meant some areas were in the dark for 48 hours.

At 5pm yesterday Top Energy crews were still working to restore power to just over 500 households, mostly in the Mangamuka and Te Kao areas. At 8am almost 1000 households were without power.

The storm also took a heavy toll on boats.

Deputy harbourmaster Peter Thomas said a salvage effort was due to begin today at Sullivans Beach, near Paihia, where a catamaran was blown onto rocks on Thursday.

Work by salvage divers to refloat a 10-metre launch that sank at Houhora early yesterday afternoon could also start this weekend. There was little fuel on board so it was not thought to pose an environmental hazard, he said.

Another boat owner was making plans to recover a classic yacht that sank at Ōpua when its pumps were overwhelmed by rain.

One more yacht was blown onto Te Wahapu Peninsula near Russell while a pleasure boat beached at Paihia was refloated on Thursday with help from Bay of Islands Coastguard.