Gas fears in flood
In the morning while the sun was shining thousands of people were evacuated from Gore, Mataura and Wyndham.
By evening, some of them were relieved to be making their way home again.
After three days of intense rain, most of yesterday’s weather was calm. It seemed a juxtaposition given the Mataura River was raging and flooding continue to spread across eastern Southland.
Emergency Management Southland controller Angus McKay said water levels were the ‘‘highest we have had’’, but a lot of flood protection work had been done since the 1984 floods.
‘‘We have seen a lot of value from that today. This is the big one we have been waiting for . . . This is the first time it’s [flood protection] been tested.’’
The farming community took a massive hit, with many rural properties having extensive flooding around them.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor declared an adverse event, committing an initial $100,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Farmers will have lost crops and the cost of rebuilding fences will be significant, but he said the cost of the flood was impossible to assess right now.
McKay said helicopters had been absolutely invaluable during the past three days.
People in rural areas had waved to get pilots’ attention and
had been rescued where possible. A Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter was sent to Southland, and helped evacuate about 18 people from a rest home in Wyndham.
One of the biggest worries for emergency services and Civil Defence was protecting the 10,000 tonnes of ouvea premix stored at Mataura.
McKay said: ‘‘We are aware of the potential risks of the ouvea
premix. We’ve got a wide evacuation zone around the area.’’
At a briefing at 5pm in Invercargill, McKay said there would ‘‘definitely’’ be water in the old paper mill building that is storing the ouvea premix, which releases ammonia gas when wet.
There had been no issues with ammonia discharge from the paper mill but the situation would be assessed.
At a public meeting at one of the welfare sites in Edendale, Detective Sergeant Scott Mackenzie told the people gathered that one of the main reasons they had been evacuated from Mataura was the ouvea premix.
Civil Defence controller Ian Davidson-Watts made the decision to allow people who live in Gore to go home after assessments of the river flows and the condition of the flood bank in the town. Chris Couzens, a pensioner in Mataura, about 11 kilometres south of Gore, said he and his wife were taken to the police station after they did not want to leave their dog, caged parrots and pedigree poultry behind.
‘‘Our animals were perfectly savable.’’
Presbyterian Support chief executive Michael Parker said up to 80 people living at its Resthaven Retirement Village in Gore were
evacuated after a call came through at 10pm on Tuesday that they had to leave.
The complex evacuation, which involved hoists, wheelchairs and staff taking patients notes and medical requirements, was carried on through the night as the rest home and dementia care unit were told that they had until 8am to leave. Thirteen high-care patients who needed hospital care were taken to Invercargill.
While some of Gore’s 2400 evacuated residents can go home, Mataura and Wyndham residents were still unable to return last night as the water levels had not begun to decline.
Several homes in Gore’s Salford St were flooded but none in Mataura and Wyndham.
‘‘We want to get people back into their homes as soon as we can and we are doing everything we can do that,’’ McKay said. Hundreds of people, including volunteers, had worked on the response, he said. ‘‘Multiple communities around Southland have stood up and looked after people.’’