Civil Defence says the danger from the Canterbury downpours hasn't passed.

Canterbury controller Neville Riley told Heather du Plessis-Allan it came close earlier to evacuating more than the 400 households.

"We've been lucky in that I think the evacuations haven't been as significant as they could have been.

"If the Ashburton River had broken it's banks, we'd be talking thousands of people being evacuated."

Civil Defence remains concerned about the risk of flooding at the Eyre and Ashley rivers and in coastal Kairaki.

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