The Dunedin City Council (DCC) has spent about $1million repairing damage to the city’s roading network, and the figure is expected to climb several million dollars higher.
Most of the water from last month’s flood has drained from farms on the Taieri Plain and pump stations were working 24 hours a day, where required, to pump away what remained.
The situation will be helped by the conditions which yesterday brought Dunedin’s warmest temperature — 17.1degC — since May 2.
MetService communications meteorologist Lisa Murray said higher-than-usual temperatures were expected for the rest of the week as a ‘‘warm air mass’’ sat over New Zealand.
Dunedin city councillor and farmer Mike Lord said the warm weather was perfect for helping dry out his Taieri Plain property, which was flooded last month.
The last of the water collected on his farm as part of the Otago Regional Council (ORC) flood protection scheme was pumped out on Sunday morning, Mr Lord said.
‘‘I was pretty excited about that.’’
The grass looked a little yellow, but would likely recover reasonably quickly, helped by this week’s warmer weather.
‘‘In a couple of weeks it will look all green again.’’
If the flooding happened in summer, he would have needed to re-sow grass at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars.
‘‘When you have got the heat shining down on the water it kills the grass very quickly.’’
He was happy with the way the flood protection schemes had worked.
DCC recovery manager Simon Pickford said 16 road closures associated with flooding and slips were still in place yesterday.
‘‘Further investigations are being undertaken to establish costs for the remainder of the flood damaged infrastructure, but the total bill is expected to be several million dollars more,’’ Mr Pickford said.
There was still no timeframe for reopening the Second Beach and Frasers Gully walking tracks, but all other reserves were now open.
‘‘Parks and recreation staff are working with contractors to fully assess the damage and work required on these tracks.’’
The council had now issued 10 dangerous building notices and five dangerous land notices.
The roads closed included Silverstream Valley Rd, from Three Mile Hill to Flagstaff-Whare Flat Rd, Taieri Ferry Rd in Henley, parts of Blanket Bay Rd and the fords on Waitati Valley Rd and Gladfield Rd.
An EQC spokesman said it had received 78 claims from Dunedin relating to last month’s severe weather.
People had up to three months to make a claim after sustaining damage.
ORC environmental monitoring and operations director Scott MacLean said most of the water on the Taieri had been cleared through pumping.
There was still some surface ponding in some areas, Mr MacLean said.
All pumps were working to capacity and were running 24 hours a day, where required.
The emphasis now was on an inspection of the Taieri flood protection schemes over the coming weeks to look for infrastructure damage and assess the need for repairs.
The ORC believed the flood protection scheme worked effectively.
