One man was found dead inside his car after it had been submerged in floodwaters while travelling on State Highway 39 in the district.
Less than a kilometre away, another motorist’s ute crashed into the ground after a highway bridge partially collapsed with a resident describing the vehicle as “toast”.
Attention is turning now to the North Island’s east coast, which is blanketed in weather warnings and watches from MetService.
Meteorologist Devlin Lynden told the Herald the rainfall is likely to drench the region.
This comes a month after devastating floods and landslides in the same area, and the landslides in nearby Bay of Plenty that killed eight.
“For Gisborne, Tairāwhiti, those areas,” Lynden said, “we’re expecting the rainfall through the rest of this evening and Sunday to be quite significant, likely the heaviest for those areas over the past few days.”
The “strongest band” of rainfall is likely to come on Sunday, Lynden said.
Gisborne north of Tolaga Bay has an orange heavy rain warning overnight, ending at 9am Sunday with up to 150mm of rain expected on top of the significant amount that has already fallen.
Gisborne south of Poverty Bay and Hawke’s Bay about and east of Wairoa has a heavy rain warning starting at 7am tomorrow and lasting for 22 hours.
Inland Whanganui and Manawatu north of Marton, and Taihape have the same warning starting at 6pm on Sunday.
Strong wind warnings for Wellington, and eastern Marlborough north of Clarence, Wairarapa and the Tararua District and Gisborne south of Poverty Bay come in to force on Sunday afternoon.