If a major flood threatens Queenstown, it will be up to individuals and businesses to be prepared.
That is a key message of free ''flood preparedness'' sessions to be held at four Queenstown Lakes centres from today.
Organised by the Otago Regional Council (ORC) in concert with the Queenstown Lakes District Council, the first will be held in Wanaka today, followed by Queenstown, Glenorchy and Kingston over the following three days.
ORC director engineering, hazards and science Gavin Palmer said the annual spring sessions were an outcome of the ''Learning to Live with Flooding Strategy'' released in 2006, which was developed by the councils in response to a sequence of floods in the 1990s that culminated 15 years ago with the costly Queenstown event.
Physical engineering solutions such as the construction of a ''training line'' on the Shotover Delta and the raising of ground levels in parts of the Queenstown CBD had been completed, and the councils were now focusing on maintaining awareness and providing information.
''A flood is a situation that can be managed with the help of good, early information.''
The sessions would explain how people might be affected by a flood, and what they could do to minimise the impact on themselves and their business.
In Queenstown and Wanaka, mainly CBD businesses had been affected by flooding, while in Kingston and Glenorchy, residential properties and holiday homes had been affected, he said.
