Plans are being made to improve Rangitikei's response to future emergencies.
The Rangitikei District Council has reviewed how it dealt with June's flood, which damaged homes, property and roads throughout the district.
Chief executive Ross McNeil presented the findings to the council last week.
Regular checks of communication equipment, more sandbags, better access to Horizons Regional Council monitoring data and more sandbags on standby are among the areas marked for improvement.
Mr McNeil outlined how the emergency escalated throughout June 20 from localised flooding in the morning to hints of rapidly rising river levels a few hours later.
The council's emergency operations centre lost communications in the middle of the day and had to be relocated to the Marton council building.
"That communication is obviously a key and critical issue in these sorts of events," he said.
Deputy Mayor Dean McManaway said failing radio communication in outlying parts of the district was a big problem.
"We need to have something in place that's pretty much bullet-proof. Without those radios, we don't know what's going on up there."
Mr McNeil said there would now be regular checks of radio equipment and a second repeater would be looked into. The council would also be talking with amateur radio enthusiasts about how they could help in future emergencies.
The Tutaenui Stream in Marton began overtopping in the afternoon on June 20 before Marton was cut off.
"What effectively had been a property safety issue became people-focused and a state of emergency was declared," Mr McNeil said.
"We were well serviced with volunteers. There were people doing stuff when our focus was naturally diverted to people safety. People were working with sandbags."
The Tutaenui Stream, which runs through Marton and flooded the CBD, has a low capacity and starts not far out of Marton, which means there is little flood warning.
"The Tutaenui doesn't have that forecasting facility," Mr McNeil said.
"By the time you forecast it at the top end it's already there."
Much of the damage in the district was caused by debris coming down the rivers, and Mr McManaway said the council needed to talk with Horizons Regional Council about clearing waterways.
Meanwhile, the council would make sure more sandbags were available for future flooding.
"It's clear that event showed us we need more than that."
Identification tags for council staff to wear would also be introduced so the public knew who they were talking too, something the council identified was a problem in June.
Rangitikei Mayor Andy Watson said staffing was strained in the days following the flood.
"We are a very small authority and staffing for us is critical," he said.
"Yes, we did receive offers of support from other councils and possibly, in hindsight, we should have picked them up earlier.
"We had a number of staff working a phenomenal amount of hours. It's incredibly laudable, but it's not sustainable if the event had been bigger."