DOWNPOUR!
• Region hit by heavy rain • Properties flooded • Close eye on river levels • Power cuts around region • Westmere water main blow-out
Properties around the region were hit by flooding yesterday after persistent rain throughout the day. MetService meteorologist Rob Kerr said there had been 51.6 millimetres of rain in Whanganui in 12 hours from about 3am yesterday but by 3pm the worst of it was over and Whanganui was expected to miss the “really heavy stuff” last night.
The warmer temperatures and rainy conditions were connected, due to a slow-moving low system that was sitting west of the North Island.
Kerr said there was the chance of some heavy showers in the middle of the day today, but they would gradually clear out towards the evening.
Yesterday morning St John’s Hill resident Renee Matthews was on the hunt for sandbags for her property.
“My house is in a bit of a dip, so all the rain is running downhill and into my front section,” Matthews said. “It’s threatening to enter my house, and I’m desperately trying to get some sandbags to stop that from happening.”
Civil Defence visited Matthews’ property and provided sandbags for her to fill.
Matthews said she worked at JDT Engineering and Balgownie Trucks and Cranes on Hinau St and there was “water everywhere” there as well.
“It’s just got nowhere to go because the rain is so heavy.
“I’m getting flooded on two fronts, but I dare say there will be many other people with the same problems as me.”
On Turoa Rd in Whanganui East, multiple properties were under water.
Jacqui Hokopaura arrived home to discover her property submerged.
“It’s quite bad, so I called the council to try and get some sandbags to stop the water coming in.”
The property is bordered by a small stream which had grown rapidly in the rain.
“It’s not as bad as 2015 with all the silt, but it’s still a lot of water. My garage is flooded again.”
Neighbour Phil Jones, whose property also borders the stream, said she came home to discover water throughout her backyard.
“I came home and thought ‘oh no not again’.”
Her outdoor office/storage space, filled with bathroom renovation items and books, was also beginning to flood.
“It’s getting in here now too, and it’ll probably get worse. I really hope it calms down.”
Putiki Kindergarten was flooded around midday yesterday, with firefighters pumping a large amount of water from the site.
Head teacher Megan Bishop said staff at the kindergarten were aware
I came home and thought ‘oh no not
again’. Phil Jones, whose property borders a
stream
there was a large amount of rain forecast, but didn’t expect the groundwater level to rise so rapidly.
“It started getting quite wet this morning, but the water then rose quite quickly.”
Bishop said it was a teacher-only day at the kindergarten, with no children on site.
“It’s lucky because if we were open we would’ve had to send the kids home.”
Firefighters pumped the water on to the road for the stormwater system to collect.
Whanganui station officer Charlie Bilby said crews were expecting to be busy later in the day.
“This is the first flooding-type callout we’ve got, but I think there’ll be more to come,” Bilby said.
“As the rain band travels through I think we might get quite a few calls.”
Whanganui District Council senior emergency management officer Anthony Edwards said there was no immediate concern of river flooding but he would be keeping a close eye on rainfall throughout the day.
“We’ve had a chat with everyone else around our region, as well as with Horizons and their hydro guys,” Edwards said.
“We’ll be monitoring the rain that’ll be falling from now until midafternoon, and we’ll go from there.”
Horizons river management group manager Ramon Strong said he wasn’t predicting “anything of any real significance” in the region in terms of flooding for “this particular weather event”.
“That’s due in part to a relatively dry 2020, meaning that soil moisture levels are kind of on the low side,” Strong said.
“There’s a lot more capacity for the ground to absorb rainfall at the moment. It’s looking pretty positive around the region, really.”
Strong said he would be continuing to monitor rainfall, however, particularly in the upper Whanganui River catchment.
“We’ve always got half an eye on the weather, but at this stage it doesn’t look there will be much [flooding] at all.”
Several areas were hit by power cuts.
In Hunterville 104 customers lost power following an outage at 8.22am yesterday that was likely associated with the heavy rain. In Waitotara power was cut to 69 customers just before 10am.
The water main feeding Westmere blew out, requiring an emergency shutdown, a Whanganui District Council spokeswoman said.
“It’s our immediate priority to fix this.
“The cause of the problem with the main is not yet known.
“As Westmere is on a rural water scheme, most residents will have water storage tanks.
“Under the scheme they are expected to have at least 24 hours’ supply on site.”
A temporary repair was being done to restore the supply.
The council said Longacre Rd (off Kaimatira Rd) is closed until further notice because of significant surface flooding. Access is available to residents for essential travel only.