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Wild Weather: Thousands of homes threatened, Cantabrians evacuated, as 1-in-100-year weather events hits the South

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 31 May 2021, 10:46am
(Photo / Hamish Clark)
(Photo / Hamish Clark)

Wild Weather: Thousands of homes threatened, Cantabrians evacuated, as 1-in-100-year weather events hits the South

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 31 May 2021, 10:46am

Canterbury residents will wake to a region-wide state of emergency today after torrential rain caused rivers to burst their banks and forced mass evacuations in what is being labelled a one-in-100-year event.

Heavy rain flooded the region yesterday, closing roads, sparking dramatic helicopter rescues and sending Civil Defence scrambling to set up emergency welfare shelters.

Hundreds of Waimakariri residents were ordered to immediately evacuate their homes last night with stopbanks on two flooded rivers at risk of failing or expected to give way.

Waimakariri District Council ordered residents living near sections of the Eyre and Ashley rivers to leave urgently.

The evacuation order affects 133 properties near the Eyre River and 102 along the Ashley River.

Eight households at Kairaki are also being evacuated.

Fire and Emergency personnel were assisting with the emergency evacuations. Affected residents were told stay away from the rivers and surrounding areas until further notice.

And as the Ashburton River rose to dangerous levels, officials warned that up to 4000 people and thousands of homes were at risk if it breached stopbanks.

Sandbagging was underway and the military had been brought in to assist should large scale evacuations be required.

And, despite parts of the region being already drenched by up to 300mm of rain, the MetService warned that more bad weather was on the way and the situation could get worse before it got better.

Eight residents were evacuated last night from Geraldine retirement village, and six people tending stock were airlifted to safety yesterday afternoon after being trapped by rising floodwaters at Okuku in North Canterbury.

Ashburton, Selwyn and Timaru all declared states of emergency yesterday before a region-wide state of emergency was declared by Canterbury Civil Defence just before 5pm.

Emergency services had been bracing for the extreme weather, with forecasters predicting "red alert" rain conditions since Friday.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said last night their southern communication centre had dealt with around 100 flood-related callouts in the past 12 hours.

"That includes people with water coming into their homes and people needing to be rescued from floodwater, as well as things like power lines brought down by trees."

St John Canterbury district operations manager Curt Ward said staff had established an emergency operations centre in Christchurch and sent additional resources and specialist team members to the area to assist.

Acting Minister for Emergency Management Kris Faafoi addressed media in Ashburton on Sunday afternoon, saying heavy rain was expected to continue overnight and into Monday.

As of Sunday afternoon, the Ashburton River remained a major concern, and Faafoi said the next 24 hours would be critical.

The state of emergency for the Ashburton District has been declared for seven days.

Mayor Neil Brown said "half of Ashburton" would need to be evacuated if the river's stopbanks broke.

But there was "still quite a bit of capacity" in the river.

"We need it to stop raining to let those rivers drop," Brown said.

He said if residents were feeling unsafe they should call 111 or leave if it was safe to do so. But they should stay home if possible and "be cautious when out and about".

Police warned rubberneckers venturing out yesterday to see the flooding to stay home for their own safety and that of emergency workers.

The Ministry of Education said by 7pm last night, 52 of the region's 292 schools, and 24 early learning centres, had confirmed they would close today. Others would decide this morning.

NZTA was monitoring roads and bridges, and a number of state highways in the South Island had been affected by floodwaters.

A state of emergency had been also been declared in Timaru at 11.42am, said Mayor Nigel Bowen.

"We want to give police the powers to force evacuation because we have some people not wanting to move on from specific areas.

"If you're being asked to move, please do so. This particular one was close to a stopbank and … we just need people to be really sensible in their decision making today."

Two Civil Defence welfare centres have been set up in Geraldine at St Andrew's Hall and the Geraldine High School library.

A local Civil Defence emergency was also declared by Selwyn District Council at 2pm.

"With a declaration in place we will be better placed to manage road closures which are expected across the district throughout today, especially if the state highway network is affected," Selwyn Civil Defence controller Douglas Marshall said.

"We really do urge people to stay off the roads. Travel is likely to be disrupted for some time, and we do not want to see travellers becoming trapped."

Early on Sunday afternoon around 70 residents of Selwyn Huts were asked to "evacuate now" as the rising Selwyn River was expected to cut off access to the settlement.

Meanwhile, Selwyn District Council advised residents of Sheffield, Waddington and Springfield to self-evacuate if they had concerns, as surface flooding affected significant areas of the township.

A notice given to residents said the road would be closed after the evacuation order, and manned until it was safe for residents to return.

Evacuating residents were asked to secure their homes, turn off power, water and gas, and take enough medicines and personal items for two to three nights.

Resident Robby Hyde, who lives in the Upper Huts, said the river was expected to rise up the huts yesterday afternoon.

Of the 70 permanent residents he suspected some would choose to stay behind in spite of the evacuation notice.

"I think a lot of people will go, and a lot will stay, because it's their home," he said.

MetService warned last night that more heavy rain was due to fall on the region till 11am on Monday. Flooding was expected to get worse and more rivers were likely to burst their banks.

It also warned of king tides and large waves, as well as severe gales that were forecast to batter the area.

Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management group controller Neville Reilly said officials were "just holding our breath overnight".

"Everything is holding reasonably well but we just can't afford to take chances. There's a lot of contingency planning going on so that if something untoward should happen we are in a position to get people out and give them somewhere to go."

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