Residents of Peel Forest, 60km north of Timaru, measured 90mm of rainfall in one hour on Sunday evening.
One resident said the surface flooding was so bad you could “jet boat down the road”, as the water reached as high as local residents’ thighs.
Robyn Carr said her family had enjoyed a lunch party in the sunshine during the afternoon.
However, while returning home she could see the storm clouds on the horizon.
“It was frightening, it was a sheet of water,” she said.
“You could see the lawns had turned to lakes and water had gotten into some of the cottages, it’s a big insurance thing.”
The town has less than 100 houses, a few stores, a church and a pre-school. While they have experienced flooding occasional flooding, Sunday’s downpour was anything but ordinary.
“We’ve been to places like Thailand where you get a torrential downpour, but I’d never seen anything like it - the heavens opened,” said Carr.
The region lost power for about five hours as the rain abruptly stopped.
Fire and Emergency NZ said they responded to reports that three people were trapped due to the flooding. However, they were only there for less than two hours.
The crop damage is estimated to be about $80,000, Tapley said.
“It happened so fast, the damage to the crops is a hell of an expense, as it’s what we feed our stock during the winter,” he said.
“We’ll just have less feed for next winter, we won’t catch up as we’re a good month behind.”
Tapley said some of the houses were within an inch of being breached by water, while others were completely surrounded.
He said the rain was heavily localised. While his property got 90mm of rain, another house 10 minutes away only measured 10mm.
"All the asphalt in the village is displaced on the main, so everybody is out and about cleaning up," he said.
-By Nathan Morton
