Linda Vercoe, owner of Vercoe Insurance Brokers on Morrinsville’s main street, said she noticed water rapidly rising on the footpath just before 5pm. Photo / Supplied
Linda Vercoe, owner of Vercoe Insurance Brokers on Morrinsville’s main street, said she noticed water rapidly rising on the footpath just before 5pm. Photo / Supplied
A Morrinsville insurance company faced “half a car tyre” levels of surface flooding on Monday evening, deploying sandbagging and a personal floodgate imported from Italy.
It happened amid an evening of downpours in the Waikato – MetService said 213 lightning strikes were recorded as a storm traversed the region.
LindaVercoe, owner of Vercoe Insurance Brokers on Morrinsville’s main street, said she noticed water rapidly rising on the footpath just before 5pm.
“I was on a phone talking to a client and ... I just thought ‘I’ve got to go’ so I hung up. There were huge amounts of water that came in a very short period of time.“
The flooding outside Vercoe Insurance Brokers. Photo / Supplied
It wasn’t the business’s first problem of this sort, however, as Vercoe said major flooding in 2021 got into the building and helped prepare them for future events.
That included purchasing a floodgate to protect the large glass doors and stocking up on sandbags. The local council upgraded drainage around the store as well.
“Because of past experiences we’ve also got sandbags that we put at the back door, so there were five or six of them outside.“
Vercoe said the whole street experienced the same level of flooding but it didn’t last long.
“[It] pretty much went down straight away. It happened in a period of half an hour and then it was pretty much gone.”
Matamata-Piako District Council was aware of surface flooding in the Morrinsville town centre, a spokesperson said, noting the insurance office is in a “known low point”.
“Initial checks confirmed the local stormwater network was operating at capacity at the time, and there were no blockages found at nearby sump grates.
“As a precaution, crews are continuing to inspect the surrounding stormwater network, including checking whether there may be any partial blockages within the pipework.”
Vercoe Insurance Brokers' individual floodgate adds an extra layer of protection. Photo / Supplied
The council is updating flood modelling for Morrinsville town centre to “improve understanding of flood risk and help guide next steps”, the spokesperson added.
The flooding followed what was a “relatively active thunderstorm” over Morrinsville from 4-5pm, according to MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris.
He added 56 lightning strikes were recorded in the storm, with 213 in the Waikato region.
Linda Vercoe, owner of Vercoe Insurance Brokers on Morrinsville’s main street, said she noticed water rapidly rising on the footpath just before 5pm. Photo / Supplied
He said the Morrinsville area received an estimated 20-40 millimetres of rain on Monday, but acknowledged the figure “could be out by a bit” given the storm’s activity.
“The showery nature of the weather for Waikato [on Monday] meant a few spots saw an hour or so of heavy rain but the daily accumulations didn’t come to much,” he said.
Looking forward, Ferris said the Waikato region could have a dry run to the end of the week.
