Flooding eats Jimmy’s pies
Pie-lovers across the lower South Island have become inadvertent victims of Roxburgh’s severe flood damage. Jimmy’s has run out of pies.
The family-run business has been baking pies since the 1950s and is one of the many businesses in the small Central Otago town forced to close its doors this week after torrential rain and flooding damaged the town’s water supply infrastructure.
Teviot Valley Community Board Chair Raymond Gunn said contractors tested the Roxburgh water network yesterday, checking pipes and pumps for damage and leaks, in the effort to restoring supply.
‘‘There will be grit, gravel and other debris in the system following the floods, and it is important that this is flushed through the system before water begins flowing into individual properties.
‘‘In this way we aim to avoid grit and other debris damaging home plumbing and appliances.’’
Jimmy’s owner Dennis Kirkpatrick is keen to get the water back on.
‘‘We bake 20,000 pies a day, employ up to 30-odd staff and been shut since Monday. We thought the water would be back up and running on Tuesday night ...
‘‘There a quite a few shops shut because you can’t wash dishes or hands.
‘‘Hopefully we can get the water back on tomorrow.
‘‘There is no traffic coming through town anyway, just trucks blowing lots of dust everywhere.
‘‘The odd worker has pulled up wanting a pie and I’ve said, ‘as soon as you get the pipe fixed you can get a pie’.’’
Customers who might usually have ordered four to five boxes of pies had been rationing and cutting orders back to share the remaining stock around, he said.
‘‘We have been ringing clients to let them know what is going on.
‘‘We had some pies left in the chillers and trucks have been doing delivers to shops in Dunedin and Invercargill to top them up but we have none left.’’
If the water was restored and the business could open today the team, including five of his children who work in the business, were preparing for a ‘‘hell day’’.
‘‘There will be nothing else. It will be mince, mince and cheese and that is it. There won’t have time to look at the other ones.
‘‘We will just get the basic ones out and get the customers supplied, then probably next week look at getting into the other lines like the sausage rolls and mutton pies.
‘‘The main thing is getting the mince and mince and cheese out, which are easy and quick to do, and you can do a lot of them in hurry.’’
Staff had offered to work on Saturday to get pies out, he said.
Gunn said Roxburgh had light rain overnight but fortunately it did not present any fresh concerns for contractors and emergency management staff.
The key focus of response efforts today was working to restore water to households and businesses in Roxburgh.