Wild weather strikes again
The region has been hit by more wild weather, with heavy rain causing flooding in Ō mārama for the second time in three weeks. Severe weather has also cut power to 587 customers in the Raincliff and Burkes Pass areas, with a helicopter deployed to survey the damage.
The severe weather continued with an orange heavy-snow warning in place for the Canterbury high country from 1pm yesterday to 2pm today.
Up to 25 centimetres of snow was forecast above 300 metres and expected to affect areas south of the Rangitata River, spreading further north late in the afternoon, the MetService said.
The Canterbury high country was also hit by strong winds and more than 40 millimetres of rain fell overnight on Friday.
David Miller, a MetService meteorologist, told The Timaru Herald ‘‘very strong winds’’ were recorded in the area, with 130-kilometres-per-hour gusts reported at Aoraki/Mt Cook on Friday evening, and 120kph in Fairlie.
The significant rainfall in the area – 17.8mm recorded in Ō mārama on Friday – was ‘‘definitely heavy rainfall’’ with anything above 6mm in one hour the general threshold for heavy rainfall, MetService meteorologist Andrew James said.
‘‘Then again in the early hours of the next day, there was 22.4mm which was all gone by dawn.’’
That rainfall caused flooding at the Top 10 Holiday Park, in Ō mārama, which had been closed since severe flooding three weeks ago, where 60 guests were evacuated and the knee-deep flooding destroyed the campground’s roads and flooded 12 units.
Arnold Wiegersma, who has owned the business for just over a year, said there had been no extra
‘‘There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’ll get through it.’’ Arnold Wiegersma Ō mārama Top 10 Holiday Park owner
damage and he hopes to reopen next month or October.
Wiegersma said there had been a flood alarm at 5pm on Fridayg. Then at 8pm, the water levels came over the road and onto the campsite, but this time there were no guests to evacuate.
‘‘There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’ll get through it.’’
Wiegersma was concerned the last of it was not over since ‘‘the water level hasn’t gone down much’’ on the river.
He appreciated support from the community. ‘‘People have been really good to us, the amount of messages we’ve received, and we’ve got a freezer full of food.’’
There was also damage to the Ō mā rama Golf Club, which captain James Moynihan described as a ‘‘wee hub of the community’’.
The club held a working bee two Saturdays ago, with 20 to 30 volunteers clearing debris off the greens following earlier flooding. ‘‘We got the whole course cleaned up then this comes through. It’s a real kick in the guts. We’re definitely going to need to have another working bee now.’’
There had been a lot of damage to the course, maintained by a small group of volunteers, on July 19, Moynihan said. Many of the club’s assets had been washed away . The water had wiped through the implements shed and damaged the electrical motors of the mowers inside, Moynihan said. ‘‘Builders are a bit scarce at the moment – it’s a bit of a waiting game really.’’
The club would be holding ‘‘fundraisers, raffles and tournaments to build up the bank balance’’ and would appreciate any funding if people were happy to help, Moynihan said.
He has been club captain for the past two years but has heard from those who lived in the region their whole lives that ‘‘they’ve never seen flooding like this’’.
Environment Canterbury duty flood controller Jason Hawker said the flow at the Ō mā rama Stream peaked at 10am on Saturday, with a river flow of 63 cubic metres per second. In comparison, during the July 19 flooding, the stream got up to 110 cubic metres per second. ‘‘This event was significantly less than that event.’’
Hawker said rivers in the region rose on Saturday morning, and ECan monitored the rivers but no issues were observed.
‘‘All our rivers obviously rose, but nothing that’s out of the ordinary.’’
■ Five-hundred-and-eighty-seven customers lost power in the Raincliff and Burkes Pass areas on Saturday, with a helicopter deployed to survey the damage.
Alpine Energy communications and marketing manager Michelle Agnew said a risk assessment of the area was done and ‘‘due to accessibility issues caused from severe weather we opted to deploy a helicopter to undertake aerial surveillance’’.
‘‘Significant rainfall in recent months has resulted in potentially hazardous access issues for our field crews to access the electricity network,’’ Agnew said.
One helicopter from South Canterbury Helicopters was used on Saturday.
The inspection found damage to the electrical infrastructure caused by a fallen tree.
‘‘The recent heavy rain combined with strong winds resulted in quite a few fallen trees. In total at the peak of our emergency there were 587 customers without power.’’
Power was restored to all those customers by 5.30pm on Saturday, she said.