Central city building evacuated after flood
Water has been pumped out from two flooded basements in office buildings in Wellington but the occupants are not yet allowed to return to their offices.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand, which was in charge of draining the basements, left the buildings at 2.14pm yesterday afternoon.
But because a switchboard was damaged by the water, the offices were left without power and the occupants were not able to return.
Tom Mahony, principal at Mahony Horner Lawyers in the Jackson Stone House building, said the building managers did not know how long it would take for electricians to fix the switchboard.
The building occupants would not be updated again until Monday.
He discovered the flooding when he arrived at work shortly after 4.30am, hoping to go to the gym.
Instead, as he opened the roller door to the car park he was greeted by waistdeep floodwater filling the basement.
Mahony contacted the building manager and then called emergency services, with firefighters arriving not long after.
The building was evacuated and access barred from mid-morning, he said. ‘‘People got the heads-up early that we should work from home.’’
It had been both a ‘‘very dramatic’’ and ‘‘disruptive’’ day.
The disruptions had been especially painful as they happened on a Friday when the firm had a number of deadlines to meet.
There was a ‘‘river of water’’ steadily flowing down Victoria St into the drains as firefighters pumped out the basement.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand assistant commander Martin Wilby said the water had come from the main feed to the fire protection systems in the Jackson Stone & Partners building on the corner of Victoria and Hunter streets.
Thorndon senior station officer Matt Franklin said up to 30 cars could use the car park in the single-level shared basement but yesterday only four cars were parked in the floodwater which was ‘‘waist high’’.
He said crews had been busy since early yesterday morning, pumping an ‘‘Olympic size swimming pool’’ amount of water after the water main burst.
Six Wellington fire trucks pumped out the basement of that building and the basement of the Perpetual Guardian building next door.