Longtime Whangarei resident Marie Minhinnick still has vivid memories of the catastrophic Whangarei flood of May 1956.
She said a pot luck dinner planned for a friend's birthday had to be cancelled because of flood waters which split the town in half. "We had the savouries on one side and the
desserts on the other, and nobody had a square meal."
Mrs Minhinnick's husband, Terry, became anxious about his office on Water St, so the couple drove from Mains Ave to the flood water limit at St Andrew's Church and walked the rest of the way.
"Water was breaking against Mallets' windows and Cameron St was a river."
During the past six weeks, stories such as Mrs Minhinnick's have been heard throughout Northland - the Northland Regional Council has held community meetings for people living within 27 at-risk catchment areas, inviting them to share their knowledge and offer solutions to flooding issues.
Aerial surveys of the region's topography will be combined with rainfall records to identify the depth and velocity of flood waters - enabling the prediction of a variety of scenarios such as a one in 100-year flood.
One of the key messages to come from the public meetings was the need to reduce sediment and promote soil conservation, NRC's land/rivers senior project manager Bruce Howse said.
This would reduce the need to dredge channels and improve environmental outcomes.
Other feedback included a need for greater control of planning in regard to buildings in areas with flood risk. Climate change was ingrained in the project, he said.
Ministry for the Environment predictions show more varied weather patterns are likely in the next 50 years, which could result in more extreme rainfall events. Flooding could become up to four times as frequent by 2090, and the sea level could rise by at least 0.45m within the next 50 years and at least 0.8m within 100 years.
Northland had a history of flooding and this was the first time a complete analysis of the risk had been undertaken, Mr Howse said.
All data would be included in separate management plans for each river, which would be completed by July 2010.
