Water from the Andersons Bay Inlet flooded Marne St on Thursday evening, causing the road to be closed.
Marne Street Hospital facility manager Barbara Boylen said she had spoken to Dunedin City Council staff about it ‘‘some time ago’’ and hoped it would have another look at the ongoing issue.
The council says it will do that.
Ms Boylen was unsure whether anything was being done to mitigate the flooding, which she said occurred several times a year, but had been particularly bad last week.
‘‘Maybe it is a good time for [the council] to start looking at it.’’
Luckily, the aged care hospital was slightly elevated above the road, which had prevented the flood water from entering the facility, she said.
But the salt water was often pushed into the garden by cars driving through the flood water, which killed plants.
‘‘We are used to replacing and we have built up the garden a bit to try to minimise that.’’
It was potentially worse for the houses on the opposite side of the road, who were not as elevated, she said.
‘‘The traffic goes through it not realising it is salt water and pushes waves over [on to those properties]. ‘‘Given it affects so many people you would think the council would come and have a look.’’
A council spokesman said it was aware of the recent flooding and that it occurred due to high tides and low-lying land in that area.
Signs were put up in the area each time it flooded to slow traffic and prevent water being pushed on to neighbouring properties. Council staff would discuss other mitigation options with residents and hospital staff, he said.
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If you choose to live or base your place of business next to water do not be surprised or complain if you get wet, while I have major issues with this council it appears everytime someone has a complaint that is their responsibility we as a society simply blame or expect others to fix the problem. Welcome to the real world take some responsibility for yourself
I feel this is an unreasonable attitude. I have lived in Dunedin all my life (and that is a good few years!) These flooding issues, and the similar problems on Portsmouth Drive, are a relatively new phenomenon. The problems on Portsmouth Drive are entirely an engineering issue. They should have been foreseeable when that road was constructed. The fact that the DCC hasn't fixed it is a terrible indictment upon them. In Marne Street, something has clearly changed in the last decade or two. Possibly climate change leading to higher water levels is a contributor. But there is something else going on as well. Has (DCC approved) property development up the hill in Somerville St led to increased flows into the Andersons Bay inlet, causing a back-up whenever the tide is high? Whatever is happening, the DCC should be taking a far more proactive role in investigating and finding an engineering solution. Whenever this issue is raised in the ODT, the DCC responds with mealy-mouthed platitudes and nothing gets done. This issue is most definitely one which the DCC should be actively resolving.
I'm not sure what you want the council to do about very high tides causing the inundation. If King Canute couldn't hold back the tides in the 12th century what makes you think that Aaron Hawkins can do it now?
Samc, I agree in part with your comments. Their is an component of today's society that take that approach, but the water issues we have in Dunedin aren't just associated to the low lying areas. How many times has the KV creek over flowed thru the stone creek round about? The main issue we have is the infrastructure just isn't up to the task. If all main stormwater drains in the low lying areas were renewed as part of the maintenance process ( which should be done as part of the 3waters project) things wouldn't be a huge issue. If mud tanks and screens had been inspected correctly that deluge of water in 2015 would have had a minimal effect on the South Dunedin housing stock. But as this wasn't done and to all those that bleat on about contractors doing their work, look what happened last massive rainfall, nothing as screens were pulled at 9pm and the water levels receded. If my rates go toward these services I expect to either have a say or at the very least these selected contractors should be doing their part.
I like the idea of Venice style canals! Don't build up, dig down.... those gardens would look super cool with jetties!
I'm not sure on the accuracy of this, but I believe the Yanks had a plan during WWII to make a channel from the harbour basin / Andy Bay inlet, out to sea around about where the sewerage treatment plant is now.
Basically, after Japanese mini subs made it into Sydney harbour and Australia wee fighting in Papua New Guinea, the last major land battle of WWII, the US Navy wanted a safe haven for it's ships if the Japanese actually made it into NZ. Otago harbour was one possibility, however, with only one way in and out, the ships would have basically been trapped, hence the need for a secondary escape route.
It would probably been a great thing if it had gone ahead, but a couple of very large bombs which totally destroyed cities in Japan and killed thousands of innocent people, persuaded the Japanese to surrender.
The end of the war also saw the plans for making the channel shelved, but maybe the dust sould be blown off them to determine whether that could be a long term solution to stop flooding low laying areas in south Dunedin ... might be better spending money on that, than a clam bake in the harbour basin !!
Pretty harsh Samc ....
If the problem had been occurring in 1999 I doubt very much that the hospital would have been built there, although someone probably had the foresight to build it on a piece of elevated ground.
Looking at the house in the background, I'm guessing it was probably built in the late 40's, again, if the flooding problem had been a regular occurrance back then, they wouldn't have been allowed to build there.
Climate change is having an effect globally, and this flooding may well be a example of what's going to happen more often in low laying areas ... but then again, buld on the side of a hill and you risk having yur house slip down the hill one day after weeks of torrential rain, have a look at the houses that had to be evacuated on the side of the hill in St Clair last year, or just take note of some retaining walls around the hill suburbs that are leaning the wrong way, some of which have had to be replaced.
And even on high flat ground, mother nature can still give you enough of a shake to demolish small houses to enormous office blocks ... happened recently somewhere in NZ and caused total chaos, including loss of life.
In Christchurch houses were lifted for moving and for replacing foundations. Many of those old houses are on piles not slabs. Has anyone - looking at you DCC - investigated that method for putting the houses up higher than regular flood water? Dave Cull and onwards, the theme is "relocate" but relocate where, at whose cost? I cannot remember an answer to that, perhaps it was just a fluffy thought-bubble with as much substance as a drift of dope smoke on the breeze.
It is now over 30 years since it became obvious that the ocean was going rise and cause massive problems for coastal communities and infrastructure.
If you have not been campaigning hard for action on climate change for at least the last 25 years then you just need to keep quiet and suck it up. This is your Karma.
Pretty much all of South Dunedin is doomed, if not this year, then soon. Now that you have all seen what exponential growth looks like with Covid, you need to understand that it is the same, but slower with Climate Change. We are now getting to where the changes are much bigger each year. If you think the flooding is bad now than just wait, you haven't seen anything yet.