Storm repairs cost thousands | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Monday's storm has caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to Rotorua properties.

Waiariki Institute of Technology officials said various buildings on the Rotorua campus were damaged.

An update on the institute's Facebook page stated the recreation centre was closed because of extensive flooding and was due to be re-opened tomorrow. It also stated that carpet cleaning and electrical testing needed to be carried out in several areas.

McDowell St in the suburb of Springfield received several inches of hailstones in Monday's storm, some of which could still be seen yesterday afternoon.

One resident on the street said it would cost at least $2000 to repair his home.

"I will have to replace some of the insulation," he said. "Also, some of the wallpaper is peeling off and a lot of the guttering was ripped down."

The man said many houses in the street were in a similar situation.

"One of our neighbours has had a building inspector through already to inspect the damage."

Chris Smith Glass glazing manager Gary Donavan said the team had been rushed off their feet with calls about storm damage.

"The phone hasn't stopped ringing all day," he said. "It isn't just broken windows, we have had lots of calls about conservatory roofs which have been damaged or smashed with the hailstones."

Castlecorp operations engineer Tony Hill said staff received five calls for flooding.

In one case, a manhole cover had lifted and water was flowing out.

Mr Hill said there was also a sewer manhole that was overflowing, after stormwater entered the sewerage system.

"Both the Rotoiti and Rotoma Water Supplies lost power, although neither resulted in any water outages," he said.

"The central urban water supply pump station and Ngongotaha pump station had alarms that had to be attended to that were storm related, but neither caused any water outages."

WeatherWatch head analyst Philip Duncan said a buildup in the atmosphere caused the electrical storm and as the rain clouds were extremely high, the rain froze and turned to hailstones.

The storm stretched from Taupo to the Eastern Bay of Plenty but Rotorua appeared to be worst-hit.

Mr Duncan said it was unusual that hailstones, which had fallen on Monday afternoon, were still visible at mid-day yesterday.

"It is certainly a reflection of how much hail fell on the area."

Unison Central Region customer relations manager Danny Gough said 1510 homes and businesses had their power cut during the storm.

"It was mainly from lightning strikes," he said. "Most people had their power back on within an hour and the rest had their power back on by about 9pm."

Despite the hail still being visible yesterday, acting Senior Sergeant John Cassidy of the Rotorua police said there were no crashes or incidents caused by icy conditions.