THE RISING
Swollen rivers flood homes and roads
Thousands of people were forced to leave their homes, properties were flooded, roads and highways were closed, and several stranded motorists had to be rescued as wild weather thumped the centre of the country yesterday.
Two people were hurt when a tree fell on their car.
Evacuations began in Buller, on the South Island’s West Coast, on Friday night, when more than 820 people were told to leave as rivers and streams rose in the torrential rain.
Yesterday, evacuations continued in Westport in the Buller District, Riwaka in Tasman District and in Renwick and several rural communities home to several hundred people between Blenheim and Picton in Marlborough District.
Deputy mayor Nadine Taylor declared a state of emergency in Marlborough at 12.20pm.
Late last night West Coast Civil Defence told anyone in Westport who hasn’t yet evacuated to “shelter in place” and call 111 if lives were at risk.
Flood levels in Buller, where the MetService issued a rare “red warning” on Friday reached their highest level since 1926 at the Buller Te Kuha monitoring station.
The warning was downgraded to orange last night.
By yesterday, roads out of Westport were cut off.
“Westport is an island at the moment”, Buller mayor Jamie Cleine, who earlier described the event as “at least a 50-year flood event”, told 1 News.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
New Zealand Army personnel helped Buller Emergency Management evacuate about
820 people in the district, moving them to welfare centres and to friends and family.
Niwa tweeted at 7pm that the Buller River level was just below 12.4 metres, down from its peak earlier in the day of 12.8m.
Floodwaters proved dangerous for some, with several motorists rescued from stranded vehicles, including five people in two vehicles at Tuamarina, north of Blenheim.
The weather system continued to create chaos as it swept north.
Two people were hurt — one seriously, one moderately — when a tree fell on their car at 4pm, trapping them, in Hunterville, near Palmerston North.
Fire and Emergency cut the pair out and they were taken by St John Ambulance to Whanganui.
Although the worst of the weather was in the upper South Island, other parts of the country didn’t escape the mid-winter blast.
Heavy winds battered Taranaki, where at least one trampoline took flight and those posting to the Extreme Weather Taranaki Facebook page reported shaking windows, a porch being blown out and waves crashing over a rock wall at Port Taranaki.
“When is this wild weather due to go away? Feels like my house is going to blow away,” wrote one. In Wellington, roofs were ripped off overnight yesterday and by midday Wellington City Council had received “more than 20 calls to reports of flooding on roads and into private properties”, as well as shops in Berhampore. Three state highways were closed because of flooding, and others had lanes blocked.
A horse named Heathcliffe had a lucky escape after he became trapped in the flooding Takapu Valley stream.
Brave residents — including newly retired Wellington police launchskipper David “Tex” Houston and well-known teen powerlifter Rachel Duncan — risked their lives to first keep the horse’s head above water and later help as a digger hauled the animal free.
Owner Yvonne Denton said last night the “treasured family horse” had been checked by a vet and was doing well in a neighbour’s stable, but they had to watch for pneumonia as the 21-year-old Cleveland Bay cross had water in his lungs.
“His head was under water [when Duncan arrived first on the scene]. She jumped the fence and literally pulled his head out of the water . . . I can’t thank everybody involved enough.”
It also wasn’t a good day for travel yesterday.
As well as closed roads and highways, some ferry services in Auckland were cancelled and 28 domestic flights disrupted.
In the worst affected areas — Marlborough, Nelson, Westland and Buller — periods of heavy rain, with heavy falls and thunderstorms, would ease this morning, MetService said.
Conditions ease today over much of the country, although most parts can expect occasional rain, with thunderstorms in the upper North Island and Taranaki.
Parents will not be pleased to hear rain is expected for most of the rest of the week as the school holidays draw to a close.
The upside, however, is that temperatures will be in the mid-teens.
When is this wild weather due to go away? Feels like my house is going to blow away. Extreme Weather Taranaki Facebook post