By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -Some schools and roads remained shut on Monday as New Zealand’s Tasman and Nelson regions started cleaning up after heavy rain over the weekend caused flooding, landslides and forced evacuations.
The regions in the north of New Zealand’s South Island were hit by significant rainfall for the second time in as many weeks.
Tasman Mayor Tim King told Radio New Zealand that about 40 people stayed in emergency accommodation overnight but many more were staying with friends because of damage.
“I’m picking there are several hundreds of properties where at the very least it’s very difficult to get in and out, if not impossible to stay in the house,” King said.
Local emergency authorities said teams had assessed 417 properties in flood affected areas on Sunday and planned to visit a further 413 properties on Monday.
Several schools were shut because of the floods and 51 roads were closed, authorities said.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer, editing by Deepa Babington)
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