‘‘People are very ready to help. People have been helping each other all around of the city.
‘‘I was just so proud of the city and how it came together last night. It was phenomenal.’’
Mr Radich said he spent some time driving around South Dunedin last night to get a lay of the land, taking photos of the area and sending them back to the Civil Defence bunker so they too could see how the city was being affected by the heavy rain.
But most of his time was spent helping to fill sandbags until about 2am.
‘‘It gave me a really good idea of what is going on in the city.’’
He said the main problem areas in the city were in South Dunedin, the Otago Peninsula and the West Harbour areas.
‘‘The biggest problem is, how do you get the water out of South Dunedin.
‘‘The pumps are working well and have been generally keeping things in check, but they struggle to keep up every time the rain gets heavier.
‘‘When the rain eases, then the pumps get ahead. That’s what they need — that catch up time.
‘‘But when there’s been these periods of heavier rain, that’s when surface water rises.’’
He urged people not to go driving down flooded roads.
‘‘Be careful if you have to go driving down a flooded road, not to cause wakes because it flows into houses.’’
He believed the number of evacuees remained at about 70 people.
‘‘As far as I know at the moment, there have been no further evacuations.’’
He said a lot of Dunedin City Council events had been cancelled for today and the rest of his day would be spent checking on residents.
‘‘The rain is quite heavy at the moment which is quite alarming, to be fair.
‘‘We’re all just hoping for the best.
His message to residents was to ‘‘stay warm, stay dry and stay home’’ today.
Emergency Response Minister Mark Mitchell praised the response to the event so far.
‘‘It was very apparent to me on arrival that the area, the chief executives, both district and regional, and their teams, controllers, had already responded. ‘‘They had been proactive. They had done things like clearing drains and waterways.’’
The country would continue to be hit by such weather events, Mr Mitchell said, so the ‘‘reality of it is how we respond’’.
‘‘And I have to say that the response down here has been gold standard and outstanding.’’
