Nervous night as rain continues

Evacuations were continuing in Canterbury last night as substantial amounts of rain continued to fall.

About 2000 Waimakariri residents were ordered to immediately evacuate their homes because stop banks on two flooded rivers were at risk of failing.

The Waimakariri District Council ordered residents near the Eyre and Ashley Rivers to leave immediately.

The order affected 178 properties near the Eyre River and 760 along the Ashley.

The Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management Group declared a state of local emergency in the province, extending emergency powers across the entire region.

Selwyn District Council Civil Defence controller Douglas Marshall said people from the Selwyn Huts area were evacuated early yesterday, and Fire and Emergency New Zealand staff helped evacuate about 30 households in Springfield itself yesterday afternoon, whose properties were threatened by floodwaters.

Selwyn River flows were high and a flood flow breakout above the huts settlement was "likely to happen" overnight.

Early yesterday, the Ashburton and Timaru District Councils declared they would be in a state of emergency for the next seven days, after persistent heavy rain caused rivers to swell over the weekend.

It was believed to be a one-in-100-year rainfall event.

Engineers kept a close watch on the Ashburton River’s stopbanks, which were funnelling major floodwaters through the town of Ashburton.

If they showed signs of breaching, authorities were ready to evacuate parts of Ashburton town and Tinwald.

At a news conference yesterday afternoon, Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown said the stopbanks were doing their job and there was good capacity remaining.

However, rain was forecast to continue into today in Mid-Canterbury, leaving many on high alert and no doubt sleepless last night.

It was a matter of watching water levels and giving early warning to communities if evacuation was required.

He said a lot of rain had fallen, mainly in the high country, and it was making its way through the district’s river systems.

He said 4000 homes were at risk of flooding, but a lot of work had been done in the region, planning the emergency response, and assistance had been deployed.

Members of the Defence Force arrived in Ashburton yesterday.

The rain also had significant impacts on Timaru, Geraldine and the localities of Waihi and Kakahu.

Farmers worked hard around the district, trying to beat the floodwaters by moving stock to higher ground and feeding out.

Many roads were left impassable by flooding and people throughout Canterbury were urged to stay at home and not put themselves at risk.

Major roads closed included State Highway 79 (Geraldine-Fairlie), the Inland Scenic Route 72 (Winchester-Geraldine), and SH73 (Springfield to Castle Hill).

Police said emergency services were concerned people were going out to look at the flooding. Several people had to be rescued, including several farmers who got trapped by flood waters while moving stock.

Te Moana water scheme users were asked to conserve water until further notice, because the conditions caused the scheme to stop producing water and repairs were expected to take some time.

In Christchurch, the Heathcote River broke its banks near Clarendon Tce, and many streets in central Christchurch were closed because of severe flooding.

Local authorities warned the next high tide would bring fresh flooding in the city and the roads were likely to remain closed until the high tides had passed at 8.30am today.

By 7pm yesterday, 52 of the region’s 292 schools and kura, and 24 of the region’s 544 early learning services had confirmed with the Ministry of Education they would be closed today because of the flooding.

Otago and Southland remained relatively unscathed.

Heavy rain, at times, contributed to several minor crashes around Dunedin on Saturday and yesterday, but flooding was not an issue.

The MetService recorded about 30mm of rain in Dunedin and Oamaru yesterday. In comparison, Timaru recorded about 60mm and Ashburton recorded about 75mm.

MetService weather communication adviser Sonja Farmer said Mt Somers recorded the most rainfall, 254mm falling between midnight and 8pm yesterday — 132mm of that fell between 1am and 6am.

Overall, 427mm fell from Saturday morning to 8pm last night.

She said the red (most severe) warning would remain in force until 11am today, because heavy rain was expected to continue in Canterbury, south of Amberley, until that time.

An orange warning, which was still within the normal heavy rain parameters, would cover Canterbury about and north of Amberley, and Marlborough about and south of Kaikoura until 3pm today.

She said there was also a rain watch overnight for North Otago, Dunedin, Clutha and Southland until mid-morning today.

The intense low affecting the country would gradually move away to the east today and tomorrow and rain would ease across the South, she said.