City drains cope with downpour

Areas of Tauranga hardest hit by 2005's floods survived last weekend's storm, thanks to stormwater works costing $11 million.
The weekend's big wet was the first major test of the new infrastructure, which included a tunnel at Pillans Point to stop floodwaters inundating Bureta, rebuilding the harbour outfall, creating a stormwater flowpath along parts of Vale St and improving the Otumoetai Golf Course as a flood basin.
Tauranga City Council drainage services manager Graeme Dohnt said the new stormwater systems in Otumoetai and Pillans Point successfully handled the one-in-10-year storm.
"Everything functioned well. Where we spent the money, everything was fine."
The golf course drained so well that golfers were back on the fairway on Sunday.
The city's other success story was the Historic Village's new flood protection system that stopped the village from going underwater at high tide on Saturday.
Mr Dohnt said "I have never seen so much water coming out of the hills - it was incredible. Just as high tide hit, the rain pounded down and tested everything to the max.
"There was more water going under the Tauriko bridge than in 2005, it was just huge."
However the council's tight financial circumstances meant there was no magic wand to address the issues raised by Saturday's storm.
Areas exposed by the stormwater cascading out of the hills included a house going underwater on the valley at the bottom of Oropi Rd, which holds the Renner Park golf course.
Among the several sites hit by flooding were a garage in Chester St off Cambridge Rd, a garage in Esmeralda St, surface flooding on Cheyne Rd and silt buildup on Dingadee St, Welcome Bay.
Low-lying Roxanne Place went underwater at Windermere, and factories in nearby Glenlyon Ave flooded because water could not get away fast enough from where Greerton Park becomes a stormwater basin.
Some commercial buildings were inundated at Mount Maunganui in a lower-lying area of Triton Ave, Portsmouth Dr and Maru St.
Carmichael Reserve flooded on Saturday, but quickly drained back to normal, in contrast to the Route K and Oropi stream systems which were still running high yesterday.
One of the few issues on the Otumoetai side of the city occurred on Dillon Way above the Ngatai Rd side of the golf course where stormwater went through garages. A property at 38 Ngatai Rd also received some flood damage.
The garden of a Tara Rd house at Papamoa was submerged and Te Puke locals said the Waiari Stream and Kaituna River hit their highest levels since 1979.
Major problems were caused by stormwater entering sewers - putting so much pressure on the system that manholes popped out. It led to sewage overflows off Ohauiti Rd, Glasgow St, Beach Rd, and the Bellevue end of Ngatai Rd.