Oamaru sets up sand-bagging station

A state of emergency was declared in the Waitaki District on Friday night after flooding conditions continued to worsen in North Otago.

Waitaki District Mayor Kircher made the call at 8pm.

At 8.20pm the Otago Regional Council declared a regional state of emergency ‘‘in support of Dunedin City and [the] Waitaki District’’.

Two New Zealand Defence Force trucks from Dunedin were en route to Oamaru to assist with relief efforts.

Kircher understood one was to Gary pick up a child in Oamaru Hospital who needed transporting to the Dunedin Hospital intensive care unit.

The army personnel would also assist with self-evacuations and sandbagging.

Kircher said the flooding was the worst he had seen in 10 years.

Earlier, a person trapped on the roof of a car was saved by a farmer on a tractor on what was Oamaru’s wettest July day on record.

The person was stranded on the roof of the car on Weston-Ngapara Rd for about 30 minutes as emergency services could not reach them, a police communications spokesman said.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) confirmed via its Twitter account that Oamaru’s rainfall for the day had surpassed the wettest July day on record. The previous record was 56.1mm on July 30, 1974. The total rainfall on Friday, between 9am and 5pm, was 57.6mm.

Flooding caused several Oamaru residents to self-evacuate from their homes.

Senior Sergeant Jason McCoy, of Oamaru, said officers were helping people evacuate on Friday.

Whitestone Contracting was putting sandbags at residential properties on Chelmer St, Walbrook St and Conway St on Friday afternoon.

Waitaki District Council roading manager Michael Voss said the council would close all streets leading to the Waitaki Plains before dark.

Aitcheson Road, Boundary Creek Rd, Cormacks-Kia Ora Rd, Falconers Road, Fernbrook Rd, Ferry Rd, Horse Gully Rd, Island Stream Rd, WestonNgapara Rd, Waianakarua Rd, Uxbridge Rd, Springfield Rd, Simm Rd and Old Mill Rd were all closed due to flooding.

State Highway 83, from Pukeuri to Duntroon, SH1, between Pukeuri and Morven, and in Oamaru were also closed due to flooding