© Kat JacksonFinlayson Ave Manurewa is completely flooded just south of the marae.
More than a thousand homes were without power during the night and dozens of homes are flooded.
Vector spokeswoman Sandy Hodge said power was out in the suburb of St Heliers, with about 1600 homes affected initially on Wednesday evening.
Crews were fixing the fault, which was believed to have been caused by branches coming down on power lines, Hodge said.
The fire service responded to 100 calls in the Auckland and Northland area during between 6pm and 9pm, with most of them related to the flooding. Fire crews have gone to more than 50 flooded addresses. It is still receiving 111 calls from affected residents in South Auckland.
Metservice meteorologist Karl Loot said as much as 75 millimetres fell in some parts of Auckland on Wednesday evening, with up to 30mm falling in one hour.
The bulk of the "very heavy" rain fell during a three-hour period.
Auckland Airport said it had "major flooding" on its road network due to "adverse weather" on Wednesday evening, prompting the closure of many roads.
An Auckland Airport spokesman said all roads were now open and no flights had been delayed or cancelled due to the flooding.
There had been leaks in both the international and domestic terminals during the flooding.
There had been reports of water leaking through the ceiling of Air New Zealand's Koru lounge at the airport.
Air New Zealand spokeswoman Brigitte Ransom said the lounge remained open.
Homes in the West Auckland suburbs of Titirangi, New Lynn, Ranui, Kelston, Glen Eden, Green Bay, Te Atatu, Blockhouse Bay and Henderson were the first to be flooded, the fire service said.
Fire service northern communications shift manager Jarrow Philips said the storm "was pretty fast and pretty rapid".
Weather had since cleared in the west, but South Aucklanders continued to bear the brunt of the storm well into the evening
Some people reported being ankle-deep in water in their homes, he said.
South Auckland residents had reported knee-deep water flooding properties in Judge Richardson Drive in Opaheke.
Philips said fire crews were working to get to the affected houses but boulders had come down on Ponga Rd, initially blocking access to Judge Richardson Dr.
The flooding swept about 5 cubic metres of metal out of driveways over a length of 2km along Ponga Rd, he said.
Philips said Opaheke and Papakura were the worst hit suburbs, with calls coming in from affected residents until after 9pm.
The number of flooding-related calls started to die down after 9pm and crews should have dealt with all affected homes by about 10.30pm, he said.
Some callers had been "quite upset and panicked" but there were no reports of injuries or anyone being trapped, Philips said.
Auckland Council's civil defence team was also responding to calls.
POWER OUTAGES
According to Vector's website power to homes in St Heliers should be restored about 10pm.
St Heliers residents said conditions were windy.
One person visiting the area said the corner of St Heliers Bay Road and West Tamaki Rd was at the heart of the outage.
All the streetlights and houses were dark about 6.30pm, he said.
The fault was reported to vector at 6.21pm on Wednesday.
There had also been reports of power outages in Paeroa in the Waikato reion as the storm moved south.
According to Metservice Aucklanders are in for a wet and windy evening but rain was expected to clear about 10pm
.
CAR CRASHES
Emergency services have been responding to a series of minor traffic incidents since the wet and wild weather set in.
Fire, police ambulance and a helicopter responded to calls about a crash in the Northland suburb of Ruawai, south of Dargaville, about 8.30pm.
Three patients with moderate injuries were being treated.
Philips said the three-car crash happened on State Highway 12, where visibility was bad due to fog.
Shortly before 6pm St John responded to an accident in East Auckland on Whitford Rd, where two patients were treated for minor injuries at the scene.
About 7.30pm one person was taken to Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland with moderate injuries, following an accident in Clover Park.
Two people were taken to Whakatane Hospital in the Bay of Plenty, with moderate injuries, following a car accident in Tirohanga shortly before 6pm.
And at about 4pm two people were taken to North Shore Hospital in a serious condition following a crash in the North Auckland suburb of Warkworth.
Philips said there had been a few car accidents since the weather turned bad but nothing too serious.
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter