Darkening skies close on Rena

The scale of the storm approaching the Bay of Plenty and the grounded container ship Rena is evident in the New Zealand MetService's issue of a severe weather watch.

It is forecasting weather to deteriorate over New Zealand from Monday afternoon with rain and strong north to northeast winds developing.


This MetService chart shows the low approaching New Zealand from the Tasman Sea as forecast for Sunday at 1pm.

This is dangerous for Rena, which is aground on the Astrolabe Reef, with only half of it in the water, making it vulnerable to bending and flexing in the wind and on rough seas.

The MetService warns a low, and associated front over the Tasman Sea, are expected to approach New Zealand during Monday.

The low and southern part of the front is forecast to cross southern New Zealand overnight Monday, but is expected leave a slow moving front over the North Island.

As the low and front approach New Zealand during Monday, northeast winds are expected to strengthen and rain should spread over the North Island and the north and west of the South Island.

The north to northeast winds preceding the low are expected to become strong over much of New Zealand, and are likely to rise to gale for a time about the upper North Island and western areas of central New Zealand Monday afternoon, and in the east of the South Island Monday night.

There is a risk that these north to northeast winds could reach severe gale about Taranaki Monday afternoon and evening.

For the North Island, rain is likely to become heavy at times from Monday evening from Northland to Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula, across the Bay of Plenty, the northern slopes of the central North Island high country and also on Mount Taranaki.

Periods of rain with heavy falls are likely to continue through Tuesday, especially in the Bay of Plenty.

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7 comments

Wotta surprise

Posted on 09-10-2011 11:59 | By ronillian

4 days of relatively calm weather and nothing to show for it in actually removing oil (or containers) from the ship.The weather is closing in! What a surprise... severe weather warnings. And is the national govt happy with what's being done? Nothing I hear suggests otherwise. The nearby residents and communities sure ain't! The authorities are happy with the response times? No word to the contrary. Is this the best "risk management" they can come up with? And they are happy with a mere 30 tons out of the 1700 tons being removed by the end of today? Methinks there are many big lessons to be learned from this. John Key will obviously be in Tauranga to ressaure the public that all the best experts and the best resources and planning are on its way. TOO LATE if this weather hits and the ship breaks up. This all says volumes about the state of preparedness/readiness for a spill like this. One can't help but question whether leaving a salvage like this to the private shipping company and its private salvor is the way to go. Shouldn't the central govt have stepped in a lot sooner and co-ordinated the shipping company, the salvor, BOP Regional COuncil and Maritime NZ??? No doubt we'll hear John Key tell us at the press conference this avo that everything possible is being done as speedily as possible and national and international resources are rapidly converging and being thrown at it. More spin. Shame on you.


This ship is going down...

Posted on 09-10-2011 13:16 | By wreck1080

Surely the ship will be smashed to pieces in the coming storm ( 40 knot winds forecast for monday). They are removing oil and fluids now, so it appears a major disaster may be averted. Could they push the cargo into the water now and at least have an controlled sinking rather than let the winds decide?


TIME IS YOUR ENEMY

Posted on 09-10-2011 13:23 | By RORTSCAM

I repeat the first priority is to get the 1700 tons of bunker(fuel) oil off the ship immediately. This should have been planned and actioned from the moment MV RENA hit the reef as the importance of everything else pales into insignificance.If a storm hits the Astrolabe Reef we will be lucky to escape a huge environmental disaster on the BOP coast.I repeat stop pissing around organise the specialists and just do it because it can't be that difficult in the good weather to date.Tomorrow may be too late and it could be a case of 'now or never' as the song goes.!!


Pump It

Posted on 09-10-2011 16:01 | By jimmi

I would like to know, where the Navy tender was Wednesday morning?, if it was tied up in Devenport, and not on its way down here, 4 days ago, you have to ask yourselves, if this is the calibre of people that we have running these sorts of operations, what chance is there, a CRISIS is just that and we have bueracrats once again, time wasting. And one other question, is there not more than one Chinook halicoptor in NZ?, here was I thinking some Forestry contractors where using a Helicoptor similar in their opereations.


TOP KNOTCH OPINION IS ...

Posted on 09-10-2011 16:40 | By PREDATOR

That of course is that the mess is a lot easier to clean up off the beach than 10 Nautical miles out at sea.


Human lives?

Posted on 09-10-2011 18:02 | By theschizzle

I'm still curious as to whether the sailors are still aboard? Surely getting them off is also a priority? Anyone know whether they're still there, or if they've been brought to safety?


Crew

Posted on 09-10-2011 22:39 | By Salty SeaDog

theschizzle to answer your question all but a handful of crew have being relocated to shore. Seems this salvage company thought it would be fun to give their "expert cronie mates" from all over the world a paid trip out to look at her and our government agreed while we all waited. They then all forgot to ring for days to get a tanker and pumps on site. They (and John Key/Joyce too) try and defend it by saying its complex basically saying everyone else is too thick to understand. Well i dont understand why pumps in your Aus wharehouse take four days to reach NZ? But hey also release the diagrams of the Renas fuel system and give it to our chief navy engineer or our engineers at marsden point etc and lets see if they could of got that oil off before day five. This delay is appearing absolutely grotesque


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