Householders in North Otago and on the Taieri Plain were drying out homes, garages, basements and sheds, but were counting themselves fortunate.
Despite a massive amount of rain in the past week - Palmerston endured 326.7mm to 9am yesterday, more than half the amount which falls there in an average year - it is understood only a handful of homes were flooded.
The Taieri River's flow peaked at 1200cumecs at Outram on Saturday, its third highest flow since records began in 1968.
The rising rivers that had worried Civil Defence personnel from Milton to north of Oamaru on Saturday receded rapidly yesterday after the rain stopped.
However, farmland was still sodden last night and dozens of major and minor roads remained closed because of flooding and slips.
Flood warnings remain in place for the Shag, Waitahuna and Taieri rivers.
The cost of the storms could run into millions of dollars from thousands of expected claims, Insurance Council chief executive Chris Ryan told the Stuff website yesterday.
But he said damage could have been worse.
"We're pretty lucky to have escaped as lightly as we did."
Between 700 and 800 households in Macandrew Bay and Company Bay were without water for several hours yesterday after a water main burst.
The likely cause was the ground shifting because of the deluge. Problems compounded with a contractor working on the problem cutting a telephone line, affecting houses in Featherston St, Macandrew Bay.
Saturday was a day of drama. A landslip tore part of the Berwick Lodge off its foundations, resulting in the evacuation of 42 Red Cross volunteers on a disaster training exercise and damaging four cars. No-one was injured.
Water flowed through the two-week-old Avis rental car storage shed at Dunedin International Airport and covered 35 vehicles to about wheel height.
Taieri Plain and Mosgiel residents were warned the Silver Stream might burst its banks, although that did not occur and the stream only reached half the peak flows of the disastrous 2006 flood.
In Milton, residents awoke on Saturday morning to find 13 streets closed and many houses isolated by flood waters.
Sewage pipes backed up in Dunedin and Milton and parts of Mosgiel were affected by stormwater which was unable to drain into the Silver Stream.
A large slip closed the lower road at Company Bay, and residents of Bull Creek were isolated after a culvert was scoured out from the only road in and out of the town. A slip also closed the main road to Long Beach.
By last night, State Highway 1 was open again after being closed in several places over the weekend. The only road closure still in place in Dunedin was north of Macandrew Bay, where the lower road was not expected to reopen before noon today.
In Waitaki, the rain eased on Saturday night and volunteer staff at Waitaki Civil Defence were stood down after five days of responding to flooding.
More than 50 roads were still closed last night and several small bridges had been washed away.
Thousands of people on rural water schemes were still without water or had been advised to boil drinking water because of fears water supplies had been contaminated by dirty water and debris.
Palmerston's water supply was turned off on Saturday though residents were able to collect water from a tanker in the town.
