The picturesque tourist town of Akaroa is no longer cut off from Christchurch after the main road, shut yesterday after torrential rain caused flooding, was reopened this afternoon.
Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger and Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell are giving an update on the latest state of emergency for Banks Peninsula at a press conference.
Mitchell said he visited the area last May, but “they have been hit much harder this time, without a doubt”.
“More severe flooding that has had a serious impact on businesses and, of course, the residents and the rural and the farmers as well,” he said, adding that the Mayoral Relief Fund is on standby.
Mauger said the Little River area had also been hit hard with a lot of damage.
“We need to look at how we can have a diversion of some sort, so that when the Little River gets inundated or overflowing, it’s got somewhere else to go, rather than down the middle of the main drag.”
Asked if sandbags had been made available to residents near the Heathcote River in Christchurch yesterday after it breached its banks in places, Mauger replied he “wasn’t sure”.
When quizzed on climate change’s contribution to recent weather events, Mitchell said: “We’ve got a big programme in Government in terms of both beating our climate obligations and also adaptation, and there’s been billions of dollars poured into mitigation and reduction work right around the country in terms of protecting communities from these types of events.
“We do have climate targets and we are doing a significant amount of work in Government around adaptation as well.
“There are plenty of much bigger industrial countries around the world that are making a contribution, or that are contributing to that climate change argument, but it’s incumbent upon us as a country to be sensitive to that, to be responsible around it.”
Meanwhile, emergency services responded to a landslip in a residential Dunedin suburb this morning.
Police said they were called to the slip on Belmont Lane in Musselburgh about 10.50am.
Belmont Lane and surrounding roads are closed.
“Police are assisting Fire and Emergency New Zealand with evacuations of nearby residents,” a police spokesperson said.
The public is advised to avoid the area.
Craig Geddes, Fire and Emergency NZ assistant commander for the Otago District, said a nearby worker witnessed the slip before alerting emergency services.
“Since the 111 call that we received and we’ve arrived, there’s been no further slip, there’s been no further movement and no further noise,” he said.
“There’s no water emerging from it, so it seems stable at this point.”
Geddes said there was no “life risk factor” but multiple homes have been evacuated and the road has been closed while teams await further assessment from geotech teams.
“About seven properties so far have been evacuated, those immediately above the slip and the one adjacent to it.”
Geddes said there was no water emerging from the slip site.
He said one of the properties was a vacant holiday home.
“Police are making contact with the occupier now just to ensure that they are safe.”
Earlier, the Christchurch Mayor said he hopes Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband service can help restore communication to some of the areas hardest hit by this week’s heavy rain, which some are calling the worst in 30 years.
Banks Peninsula, particularly Little River and Akaroa, bore the brunt of the wild storm over the past few days, which caused flooding, slips, power outages, road closures and isolation.
Some 300mm of rain fell on Banks Peninsula in 36 hours.
A state of emergency is in place, and Christchurch City Council said more than 200 properties are without power, while Wainui has lost its water supply.
With the rain easing off and brighter skies expected today, the mop-up continues.
Mauger told Ryan Bridge TODAY he hoped the road to Akaroa, which was closed and cut off the scenic tourist town, would reopen this morning.
New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) contractors were out at first light, making progress towards reopening State Highway 75 by clearing the remaining slips and looking for any signs of damage to the road left by the floodwaters.
Just before 2pm, NZTA said the road was reopened.
“The process of formally notifying this through our system is just happening now. People need to drive with care and be aware there may be some traffic management/restrictions along the way, such as reductions to a single lane in places to accommodate work crews etc.”
Duncan Sandeman, duty Civil Defence controller for Christchurch city, said earlier: “Damage across the network, the roading network in the peninsula is likely to be fairly extensive, but we are still in the discovery phase of that to quantify the extent of the damage.
“Chorus has a team that is in Little River at the moment, undertaking diagnostics and again to get an idea of the extent of that damage, where it is and what they need to do to repair it.”
The lack of communication with areas on Banks Peninsula has been “an absolute jolly nuisance”, Mauger said.
He said four “Starlink satellite things” were being set up by council staff this morning to help restore communication.
Bridge suggested the council needs more in the future, which Mauger agreed they do.
Although Christchurch city experienced some flooding, especially around the Heathcote River again, the mayor said Banks Peninsula, especially Little River, got “absolutely hammered” and the worst of the rainfall.
“I was there yesterday, as far as I could go, and I couldn’t go any further. The road was extremely badly flooded but now that’s all subsided from what I’m told,” said Mauger, who returned to the area today.
Council crews will still be looking out for landslides as, the mayor said, “just because it stopped raining doesn’t mean to say landslides will stop”.
“We’ll have to keep a very good eye on it because they’ll be starting to move now and let’s hope it doesn’t get any worse.”
Former National MP David Carter said the vast amount of rain that fell on the region yesterday was “unheard of”.
“We can’t control the weather, and it appears the rain does come in big dollops these days,” he said.
“Three hundred mils [millimetres] in 24 hours is unheard of.
“I was talking to a friend who farms on the West Coast – he actually does the Met collection data over there.
“He said the most they ever had on the West Coast was 170 mils in 24 hours.
“So, this was an exceptional rainfall. If it’s going to be part of the pattern in the future, we’re just going to have to learn to live with it.”
Carter said the “huge rain event” had left him stuck on his farm in Teddington with no water supply.
“There’s a huge tree down over our driveway, so we can’t get out until we get that cleared away today.
“Well, in our case, it’s slips on the land, so maybe we need to do a bit more planting in some of the vulnerable areas.
“Our fencing needs to be strategically placed so that if there is a major slip, we don’t lose fences and floodgates.
“We did all that we could to get livestock into the best position prior to the storm. We were out there the night before until about quarter past nine, till dark, moving stock on to high ground.
“You’ve just got to be active and proactive when these events happen. I hope I don’t see another one, but I may do.”
School trips have also been affected by the weather, with 60 students, parents and teachers from Kirkwood Intermediate staying an extra night at Akaroa’s Onuku Marae after the road to Christchurch was closed.
“We would like to thank all those people who have supported our school group, especially those at Onuku Marae,” said Kirkwood Intermediate principal Phil Tappenden.
“They have shown huge aroha and it is much appreciated. As always, the safety of our students is paramount and we look forward to having them back when it is safe to do so. Our thanks too, to our school community for their understanding and support.”
A group of Year 5-6 Leithfield School students were on a school trip in Wainui, a small bay west of the Akaroa Harbour, when the wild weather began.
Principal Rob Cavanagh said students and staff were safe, dry and taking up indoor activities until the wet weather subsided.
“Despite the state of emergency and road closure on Banks Peninsula, our students and staff remain safe, dry and well engaged at the Wainui Heights facility, where we have continued with a range of indoor activities,” he said.
“We are looking forward to getting outside today now that the weather has improved and we are hoping to return to school this afternoon as planned, subject to the road reopening later today.”
Among Little River’s flooded residents is former Exponents frontman Jordan Luck.
“Absolutely surrounded by water. It is a moat!” Luck told the Herald yesterday.
Luck says he was woken by his partner’s sister at around 3.30am yesterday after more than 24 hours of heavy rain.
“She lives in a tiny home on ours. It was a torrent and lake from daybreak, and it has not abated.”
The singer and his partner have been at their Banks Peninsula home for more than a decade and say the flooding is as bad as they’ve seen in their time there – even in an area that is renowned for it.