A big clean up is taking place in Kawerau today after heavy rain caused flooding across the Bay of Plenty town yesterday.

Many houses and cars were damaged in the flood and Mayor Malcolm Campbell said there are a "significant" amount of roads that will need to be cleaned of mud and debris.

"There was just so much water around and flowing down roads - it was quite dramatic for a while," he said.

The flood angered some locals who claim it was the sixth time in a short span that they've been flooded. Campbell says he can understand their frustrations.

"We're going to get an geotechnical engineer in to see what we can do to fix the problem going forward."