Coastal towns bear brunt of deluge

The Press

The tiny township of Peketa, south of Kaikoura, is being evacuated after flooding threatened the settlement.
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Civil Defence said the Kahutara River had burst its banks and was now threatening to flood the Peketa settlement.

Fire Service staff and police are assisting the evacuation.

The river has not yet entered the settlement however emergency services are advising residents to self evacuate. The heavy rain has eased however emergency services are concerned about the current level of the river.

The evacuation comes as Seddon, Blenheim and Picton continued to take a pounding from a rain front that has cut roads and railway lines and caused widespread surface flooding along the east coast of the South Island.

Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs have been isolated by slips caused by heavy rain on already sodden ground in areas flooded three weeks ago, while Cheviot looks likely to be without water for days after the main pipe to the town was cut during the storm.

Civil Defence officials and other authorities said they would be monitoring the situation closely throughout the day as two months of average rainfall fell in just two days from a rain front that stalled across the east coast.

By 9am today Blenheim, Kaikoura, Picton and Seddon were bearing the brunt of the rain but North Canterbury appeared to have escaped the worst overnight.

Emergency workers had put sandbags in place around strategic parts of Kaikoura and there was surface flooding and slips around the town.

Kaikoura recorded 94mm of rain yesterday, and by 9am today another 64mm had fallen. Average rainfall for Kaikoura is normally 49mm a month at this time of the year.

A house has been evacuated as a huge tree threatens to fall on Kaikoura's Torquay St.

Kaikoura Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer Ian Walker said several huge trees had already fallen, one across Torquay St, because the ground was so saturated.

He said one tree was "leaning quite severely'' across three houses, but just one house was occupied. The people were evacuated and emergency workers were making sure nobody went back in until arborists felled the tree.

The fire brigade had been to several other weather-related incidents last night and today.

Walker said the brigade pumped water from a basement on Kaka Rd this morning and last night prevented water from flooding another house.

Kaikoura District Council spokesman Mike Kennedy said there was a lot of surface flooding.

''The drains and the river system are coping as designed…, but there's a couple of issues. We've issued boil water notices to a couple of communities… but otherwise our sewerage and our water supply is ok.''

In Picton the Alexander Holiday Park was evacuated last night as a precaution and residents were given temporary accommodation.

Sandbagging was in place around other low-lying properties to prevent damage.

Mark Wheeler from the Marlborough District Council said there had not been house flooding that council staff were aware of.

In Blenheim staff  were watching surface flooding in low-lying parts of the town.

"It's a much lesser event than last time, it’'s just it may worsen if the rain continues on and on. At the moment its at a really low intensity, and we’re hoping that will continue. Actually, we're hoping it will stop.''

The Taylor River was high but not in danger of spilling over floodbanks, he said.

A massive slip has closed the Weld Pass on SH1 between Blenheim and Seddon at about 9am and contractors are working to try and clear the road.

SH1 between Seddon and Cheviot has been closed by slips and motorists are urged tio use caution on SH7 between Waipara and the Hanmer Springs turnoff, also because of slips.

The slip that has isolated Hanmer Springs has come down in the windy section of the road just after the Ferry Bridge over the Waiau River.

The slip comes as rain continues to tumble down north of Waipara.

Cheviot township’s water supply has been completely cut off by a break in the pipe feeding the town.

It was hoped the reservoir would keep water flowing but it is now completely dry and tankers are being sent to the township.

It is expected repairs could take days which could mean the Cheviot Area School remaining closed due to students not being able to use the toilets because of no water.

The Greta Valley School and Hurunui College at Hawarden are closed because flooding and slips on rural roads.

In North Canterbury Civil Defence centres have been stood down in Hurunui and Waimakariri districts.

Further south Selwyn District Council's civil defence centre is still operating. While the Selwyn River is flowing freely, there was concern about some of the river's tributaries.

MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said the rain front had passed over North Canterbury and had moved north, bringing heavy rain to Kaikoura and Seddon.

The low is expected to head east today.

MetService had expected between 250mm and 300mm rain was forecast for the Kaikoura ranges and 120mm to 200mm between Banks Peninsula and Kaikoura today as a front stalled across the region.

In North Canterbury at 8.30pm yesterday, the Waiau River was running at 500 cubic metres a second (cumecs), threatening the Waiau township, and the Hurunui River was flowing at 900 cumecs but was not endangering any settlements.

Hurunui District Council spokeswoman Naomi Woodham said the Mason River, a Waiau River tributary north-east of Waiau township, had burst its banks, putting part of Chaffeys Road under about 4m of water and isolating several houses.

The Inland Road from Waiau to Kaikoura had several big slips at both ends and was accessible only through a gated access road.

Amberley and Leithfield Beach residents were on evacuation alert last night, and several homes in Sefton and Swannanoa were sandbagged yesterday to stop them being flooded by creeks that burst their banks.

A road bridge in the Blythes Valley at Nape Nape was swept away, and rural roads and farmland were flooded, particularly around Sefton, which was hit hard by last month's rain.

Several schools sent pupils home early in case floodwater prevented them getting home.

The cold, wet weather was a cruel blow to farmers, particularly those in the Cheviot, Waiau, Inland Road, Hundalee and Conway River areas who were just beginning to return to normal after swollen rivers and streams last month ripped out kilometres of fencing, deposited debris over paddocks and caused slips and damage to tracks.

Hurunui flood recovery co-ordinator Terry Donaldson said the downpour was "probably the worst thing for farmers who have been through a long drought, both climatically and economically, and now they are hit by another flood".

Farmers were in the middle of lambing and calving and many new arrivals would be lost if the wet, cold weather continued, he said.

Volunteers who had been helping farmers to repair the damage were pulled out for their own safety as streams and rivers rose and culverts blocked.

A house in Sefton, flooded last month, was again in the firing line as a creek spilt over its banks and rushed around the back of houses on the main road.

A bund made up of water bladders directed the water from the house down the driveway and across Upper Sefton Road to farmland. The portable water-filled bunds, made by a Christchurch-based company, were also used in the North Island during recent flooding.

Sefton resident Ryan Murray paced up and down nervously as he watched the rising water levels. He and partner Chauntel Kentish were evacuated from their home during the earlier storm and had just had new carpets laid.

Murray said the property had been sandbagged but he would be monitoring the water levels, particularly around high tide at midnight to see what impact Saltwater Creek would have on waterways threatening his house and several others in the village.

 Amberley Beach and Leithfield Beach residents were warned yesterday afternoon to make arrangements to stay with friends and family, but by last night it was decided not to evacuate as both lagoons, which had been opened to the sea, appeared to be coping with the floodwaters.

Wayne Roberts and Mike Barnett, of Leithfield Beach, kept a close eye on a digger opening a cut through to the sea just after high tide yesterday.

Roberts, who is on dialysis, said the Hurunui council had not acted fast enough in the last flood and he had about 4cm of water running around his house.

Barnett criticised the council for not acting before the rain arrived.

It had plenty of notice and should have opened the lagoon to the sea last week, he said.

He was concerned the effect the nearby Kowai River was going to have as it had burst its banks.

The Waimakariri District Council said a swollen creek between Oxford Road and Johns Road had forced five homes to be sandbagged, but the main flooding was confined to nearer the foothills.

There was a lot of flooding in the Cust Valley and Okuku-Loburn areas.

Kaiapoi escaped relatively lightly, but the council said it would be monitored.