hckx1tXb2s- West Coast, NZ November 7, 2018Įight schools were closed on the West Coast due to the heavy rain and flooding, the Ministry of Education told The New Zealand Herald. The strongest winds recorded so far were 80km/h at a station near Lumsden in Southland, and 65km/h at Le Bons Bay on Banks Peninsula.ĪREA WARNING DUE TO SEVERE WEATHER:The raod between SH 6 HariHari to Franz Josef has been closed due to flooding.Please follow and for updates on today's weather across the South Island. Gusts could reach 150km/h in exposed parts of Canterbury, and 130km/h in other affected areas. Strong winds were ramping up about the Canterbury high country, Wellington and southern Wairarapa today.
The Rimutaka Hill Road (SH2) linking Wellington and Wairarapa remains closed due to high winds. In New Plymouth, all flights were grounded due to problems caused by heavy fog and low visibility. NZTA also issued a caution for motorists using SH6 between Queenstown and Lumsden in Southland, saying surface water had pooled in the southbound lane near the Oxford St intersection.Ī caution for flooding was also put in place for SH90 from Tapanui to McNab SH1 Juction. State Highway 6 from Hokitika to Haast and State Highway 73 Arthur's Pass between Arthur's Pass township and Jackson were likely to remain closed overnight.ĭrivers in the area are being urged by NZTA not to travel unless it is absolutely essential. The conditions have caused parts of roads on the West Coast to crumble and fall away, forcing the NZTA to close main highways. The MetService says Hokitika copped more than 800 lightning strikes in a 20-minute period this morning. He said the first alarm is when it hits a level that is considered a flood, the third is extreme and if that goes off they will have some problems "for sure". Westland District Council mayor Bruce Smith said the second alarm for the river had been activated, and there was still another few hundred millimetres of rain forecast. The Hokitika River was threatening to sweep away a campervan parked on one of the braided river's islands. Meanwhile, Otago Boys' High School pupils have been marooned in a hut in the Mt Aspiring National park after heavy rains made a creek impassable.Īreas of the West Coast have been drenched, the Ivory Glacier receiving 391mm of rain - more than Clyde, Cromwell and Alexandra saw in the entire of 2017. The wet and wild weather system has bashed the West Coast, forcing the closure of schools, roads and potentially stranding students for the night. Other West Coast airports contacted by CNN said they were unaware of the order.Bridge collapse at Goat Creek, just east of Otira. The message we got is it's until further notice."Īnother recording of the control tower frequency in Hillsboro, Oregon, captures the controller telling the pilot of a Cessna to land, saying "we just got a notice that we need to do a national ground stop."Ī spokesperson for the San Diego International Airport told CNN the airport "was instructed by Air Traffic Control that there was a national ground stop but shortly after (5-7 minutes) our operations team was told it was lifted." LiveATC air traffic control recordings of the Burbank Airport in California detail a controller telling a Southwest flight "there's ground stops all departures, all airports right now. The standard practice is for FAA to have a constant liaison in the NORAD ops center, therefore would have been aware of the quick assessment.
The NORAD spokeswoman said the normal sequence following the launch was followed: The missile launch was detected, and it was assessed not to be a threat to the continental United States. We are reviewing the process around this ground stop as we do after all such events."
The FAA regularly takes precautionary measures. "Full operations resumed in less than 15 minutes.
"As a matter of precaution, the FAA temporarily paused departures at some airports along the West Coast on Monday evening," the FAA said in a statement. "No warning was issued by NORAD HQ," regarding a potential threat to the US, according to Captain Pamela Kunze, the chief NORAD spokesperson. The official says it was not a national ground stop and may have been issued by a regional air traffic control facility. The Federal Aviation Administration, responsible for the nation's air traffic control system, said the ground stop was to err on the side of safety.Īn unusual ground stop was issued to some pilots for a short period of time following a North American Aerospace Defense Command alert of a launch of a North Korean missile, a US official said Tuesday.
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