South on standby for floods and slips in code-red rainfall
Further deluges of rain are expected in Canterbury today and Civil Defence warned last night that the worst is yet to come.
Canterbury is experiencing what is predicted to be its most significant rainfall in a decade.
Dangerous river conditions and severe flooding were expected for areas south of Amberley, while slips and floodwaters were also likely to disrupt travel, making some roads impassable and potentially isolating communities, MetService said.
The weather event was the subject of a red warning from the agency – only the second since its colour-coded warning system was introduced in mid-2019.
Cantabrians, however, shouldn’t expect short deluges. The event’s danger lay in its persistence and longevity over a sustained period – danger expected to last until tomorrow morning.
‘‘The expectation is that there’ll be a lot more rain,’’ MetService meteorologist Sonja Farmer said last night. ‘‘The problem is that a lot of it will be falling in the high country, and the rivers are going to be as much of an issue as the actual rain falling in urban areas.’’
At about 8pm last night, 31mm of rain had fallen in Methven, 26mm in Geraldine and 20mm in Darfield since the red warning came into force at 3pm. It was expected to remain in place until 11am today.
Canterbury Civil Defence regional duty officer Andrew Howe said the agency remained in touch with key agencies, including local councils, to keep abreast of any flooding.
‘‘It’s certainly still a waiting pattern from an emergency management point of view. There’s a lot of preparation that’s been done across the local authorities from Kaiko¯ura to Waimate and [the] Mackenzie [District] to ensure their emergency operation centres are ready to go.
‘‘I don’t think we have really seen the worst of it yet,’’ Howe said.
While much of the focus has been on Canterbury, other parts of central and southern New Zealand were also experiencing severe rainfall, thanks to a complex low pressure system over the Tasman Sea.