A weather bomb is continuing to leave a trail of destruction across the top of the South Island

WeatherWatch is forecasting the heavy rain to clear up by Saturday, but it's far from over yet.

Red Warnings are in place for the Nelson region - along with Buller and Westland until at least tonight.

More than 200 Nelson homes have been evacuated, after the Maitai River breached its banks yesterday afternoon.

WeatherWatch's Philip Duncan says there's still more than 150 millimetres of rain to fall in impacted areas over the next few days.

He says they're not out of the woods yet, but yesterday should have been the worst of it.