UPDATE 3:20 pm: State Highway 63 is now open, with restrictions, between Renwick and Kawatiri Junction.
The previously closed Kawatiri to Korere-Tophouse Road section reopened at around three pm today.
However, with weather and flood damage still affecting the highway, it is only open to residents and essential travel between Korere-Tophouse Road and Renwick.
Road users must drive to the conditions and be prepared for hazards when travelling the route.
There were also reports on social media that convoys are being guided over Tākaka Hill, however Civil Defence requested the post be taken down as "under no circumstances should people be trying to travel over the hill".
Current state highway closures:
Update 2.30pm Acting Prime Minister David Seymour and Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell spoke to media at Nelson Airport this afternoon.
They were joined by Tasman Mayor Tim King and Civil Defence controllor Alec Lourverdis.
Speaking during the press conference, Tim was visibly emotional as he spoke about the devastation being felt by the community.
"I've spent my whole life in this community... it's pretty heart-breaking when you have these conversations with people... there's that sense of where do you even start?"
Tim says it has been "pretty shattering" for a lot of people.
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour said the challenge now was pulling together and restoring water and communication and getting water working again.
"Because of the very steep terrain the damage is spread out in a lot of places so the challenge of getting electricity back on is it's in lots of different places".
Minister Mitchell says the damage has been more severe than two weeks ago "without a doubt".
"The fact of the matter is, it's been weeks where there's just been this continual build up of water, and the ground has lost the ability to be able to absorb it, and that is really what the aggravating factor is."
Tasman District Council chief executive Leonie Rae says so far there has been $300,000 of applications made to the Mayoral Relief Fund.
"We've got about $150,000 in there. So these are for people who need things like firewood or need some immediate stuff to make their lives a bit more comfortable in the short term."
Tim says mental health is going to need to be a big focus in the coming weeks.
"The challenges are, for a lot of those people, really enormous, and just the fact that the weather's been so wet for so long, a lot of, particularly farmers, are facing real challenges."
He added that even those who don't have significant damage to their property face challenges with managing stock and feed.
"[We have] the support of the health department, so they have a big focus on that as part of the welfare response, to ensure that help is available to people who need it."
Minister Mitchell said, while it was still early days, it would be fair to say the cost of recovery will reach into the millions.
Update 1pm:
Water supply has now been restored to Kaiteriteri, according to Nelson Tasman Civil Defence group controller Alec Louverdis, although there are still plenty of issues on the road in.
State Highway 63 has reopened this afternoon to residents and essential travel between Waihopai Valley Road and Korere-Tophouse Road. It remains closed between Kawatiri Junction and Korere-Tophouse Road.
With no direct access to the West Coast from Nelson and Blenheim, people needing to travel to the West Coast will have to go via the east coast and State Highway 1.
Current state highway closures:
Update 12pm:
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell will speak to the media around 12.45pm, you can watch it here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/566589/live-weather-updates-thousands-of-homes-without-power-after-another-night-of-wild-weather
Around 3000 homes remain without power in the Tasman district.
At the peak of the bad weather, outages were affecting 13,000 properties, but power was restored to most of them late last night.
Network Tasman's operations manager, Robert Derks, says the remaining outages are mostly on the Waimea side of Takaka Hill, and quite spread out.
He says it is likely to take crews some time to fix the damage.
Tasman District Council is asking everyone to stay off the true left side of the Wai-iti stopbank from Downers old crossing to Livingston Road.
The bank has been undercut and is too dangerous for public access. The area is unstable and could collapse without warning.
Contractors will begin works as soon as river levels drop — likely tomorrow.
Update 11am: The damage from the severe weather which battered the top of the South Island will be very costly, Tasman Mayor Tim King says.
The record amounts of rain which fell yesterday follow similar flooding only a fortnight ago.
Tim says he's relieved the sun is out today, however, the heavy rain and strong winds have left a swathe of damage in their wake.
"It's actually a very nice sunny day, which is great - it's nice to see the sun," he told RNZ.
"But what it is showing is there's a lot of damage.
"I have literally just left a site in the lower Wai-Iti River which two weeks ago survived intact pretty much, now the stopbank is all but disappeared for 100 metres.
"I think that's probably illustrative of what people will be discovering around the district over the course of this morning and during the day."
He says at this stage it's hard to be clear just how extensive the damage is, but it will be a very expensive recovery.
"It's kind of a second recovery. Lots of people were part way through recovering.
"So it's now two weeks since the last event that created significant damage - we dodged a bullet a week ago - a lot of that will have been undone, so work that was already done will be undone which will be pretty soul destroying for property owners who were part way through the recovery."
While the weather next week doesn't look bad, Tim says more similar weather events could be expected.
He advised those assessing and repairing damage on their properties and around the district to be careful, not to take any risks and to stay well away from waterways and riverbanks.
Progress is being made on reopening state highways in Marlborough.
State Highway 63 has reopened in Renwick between the intersection of State Highway 6 and Anglesea Street, and the closure on the highway through the Wairau Valley has been shortened slightly – it is now open between Renwick and Waihopai Valley Road.
Current state highway closures:
UPDATE 8 am: Additional state highway routes have reopened in the Nelson Tasman region this morning.
The closure of State Highway 60 has been reduced, and the highway is now closed between Riwaka and Upper Tākaka. The highway is open between Richmond and Riwaka, and between Upper Tākaka and Collingwood.
However, weather damage can be expected on reopened sections and drivers are urged to avoid non-essential travel as work to restore and repair roads across the region continues.
Current state highway closures:
Work is underway to investigate and assess weather damage to state highways across the Top of the South.
Road crews are out from first light this morning, working hard to restore access to communities cut off yesterday and overnight by flood and storm-related damage.
While this work is underway, state highway closures remain in place on multiple routes until further notice.
Because of the scale of yesterday’s weather, some closures are likely to remain in place for some time. People must be prepared for ongoing delays across the region and multiple roadworks sites.
The public are asked to obey all closures, not to drive through flooded areas, and avoid all unnecessary travel.
Heavy machinery will be operating at various locations across the network. Repair work will be faster, and roads will reopen sooner if people can avoid non-essential travel.
Routes will be reopened after they have been assessed/inspected for weather damage, and only if it is safe to do so. Please be patient, contractors are working hard to restore state highway connections.
Current state highway closures:
For local road closures see here.
Civil Defence says rivers are starting to recede in Nelson Tasman after the region was pelted with rain yesterday.
Roads however remain closed across the region from downed trees and surface flooding, and Civil Defence is advising people to avoid driving on the roads where possible.
Civil Defence says 99 people are currently in temporary accommodation and no one remains in any of their welfare centres.
There is currently no drinking water supply in Kaiteriteri, and a tanker is in place at the Kaiteriteri Motor Camp with the aim of two to three tanker trips a day.
Crews are onsite assessing the damage to the water main.
Fire and Emergency says it has had 30 weather-related callouts in Nelson Tasman since 6pm on Friday. It says things appeared to settle down after 9pm.
More than 50 residents of Nelson and Tasman districts have been put up in motels overnight, after earlier heading to Civil Defence centres amid widespread flooding.
Lines company Network Tasman says most customers in Motueka and Golden Bay will now have their power back on, but there are still outages across its wider network, and repairs will start at first light.
Floodwaters have lifted some caravans at a holiday park in Kaiteriteri.
Emergency services were called to Bethany Park at about 6.30pm on Friday evening, after a dam behind the park burst.
Fire and Emergency shift manager Blair Walklin says water was flowing through the park and some "unoccupied caravans had floated a distance". He understood the caravans had been located in a storage area.
He says there are people staying at the park, but they were not affected and no one was injured.
