Soldiers to battle winter

Residents in flood-stricken parts of the South Island had a chance to take stock yesterday as the rain eased, leaving slips, road closures, sewerage leaks and damaged properties in its wake.

The respite may be short-lived, as a front is expected to move up the South Island today, bringing heavy downpours to Fiordland and Westland.

A second active front is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, bringing another period of heavy rain into western regions of the South Island and a cold southerly change to eastern regions.

Over the weekend, roads turned into rivers, and houses were evacuated as the tempest ripped through Christchurch, Dunedin, Timaru, Waitaki and the wider Otago region.

Emergency services struggled to cope with all the weatherrelated callouts. The Defence Force sent nine trucks, an ambulance and about 20 soldiers to help tackle the floods in South Canterbury and Otago.

The army also transported a child from Timaru to Dunedin Hospital’s intensive care unit on Friday night, before rescuing nine people trapped in and on cars along State Highway 87 early on Saturday morning.

In Oamaru, a farmer rescued a person trapped on the roof of their car on a flooded road, while more than 200 homes were evacuated in Dunedin and its rural communities. About 100 of those properties were in Outram, a rural town west of Dunedin.

More than 25 slips had affected roads around the wider city, many of them on the Otago Peninsula. Some areas were effectively cut off, such as the peninsula north of Harwood, where no alternative access route was available. Dunedin City Council said it would take months to clear all the slips.

Meanwhile, South Canterbury’s skifields are primed for the rest of the 2017 season, with both Roundhill and Mt Dobson receiving more than a metre of snowfall in 36 hours.