Flooding in Turoa Rd, Whanganui East, overnight on Saturday. Photo / Whanganui Civil Defence
Wild weather has caused havoc across the region, with evacuations, state highway and local road closures, slips and flooding.
MetService meteorologist Dan Corrigan said the weather station at Whanganui Airport recorded its second wettest day in May since records began in 1971, with 52.4mm of rain falling between 9am Saturday and 9am Sunday.
Higher rainfall was recorded further inland and up the Whangaehu Valley.
Kauangaroa, north of Fordell, recorded the most rainfall in the region with 79.5mm, while other gauges around the region recorded 60-70mm. In Ruapehu and Rangitīkei rainfall was less severe, with 33.5mm falling at a station near Taihape, 30.8mm in Waiouru and 30.2mm in Raetihi.
Whanganui was blasted by strong winds, with Whanganui Airport recording 80km/h gusts at 9pm on Saturday. Winds stayed high into Sunday, with mean speeds between 30 and 40km/h.
The high rainfall caused flooding around the region, with Rangitīkei District Council evacuating some residents, including from the flats in Wellington Rd, Marton, and Bulls. The council activated welfare centres in both towns.
Whanganui District Council emergency manager Tim Crowe said Civil Defence (CD) staff assisted police with evacuating people from the kaumatua flats in Pūtiki on Saturday night as a precaution.
Residents on Shakespeare Bluff, Bastia Hill, were evacuated due to a slip which closed State Highway 4 Anzac Parade near Kowhai Park but had been able to return home.
Catchment water spilled on to State Highway 3, closing it between Warrengate Rd and Wikitoria Rd on Sunday. Kaitoke Rd off SH3 also flooded.
Surface flooding occurred on residential streets across Aramoho and Whanganui East, mainly due to fallen leaves blocking drains, Crowe said.
“We’re in the middle of leaf fall and, with the swirling wind, it knocked a lot of leaves down; in fact, they were going down all the time and it doesn’t take many of those to block drains.
“One of the people I was talking to [on Sunday] morning, he cleared his own drains out [Saturday] afternoon and they still blocked up,” he said.
The most significant surface flooding happened on Turoa Rd, with water also flowing on to neighbouring Raine St.
Crowe said the flooding was caused by an issue with a local stream and catchment.
“It was pretty wet above it, it’s not a big stream but it’s pretty easy to overwhelm it.”
Roading and drainage crews had worked to quickly clear away the floodwaters overnight.
Turoa Rd resident Margaret Marshall said she found out about the flooding when she went to take her dogs outside on Saturday night but they wouldn’t leave the deck.
“It was raining, it didn’t seem to be raining very hard, but I went out to go out with them, put a coat on and took the torch out and the whole of the place was flooded,” she said.
A stream at the top of the road had flooded due to water not being able to get through a culvert.
“I don’t know whether it was blocked or what was happening, but it was a huge amount of water.”
She called Civil Defence who helped get the dogs to higher ground, though she elected to not evacuate.
“I’m waiting for a hip replacement, so I didn’t want to go out in case I lost my footing,” she said.
The water did not enter her house.
She said a similar incident happened in 2021 when the stream flooded but before then the last time it happened was just after she and her husband moved to the street in the 1970s.
“We’d only just shifted in after the house was built and we had a flood just like it.”
A stopbank was put in upstream after that incident and she thought there may now be some issues with it.
“I’m wondering if there’s something being blocked up there where the stopbank was because something’s changed, we shouldn’t be getting stuff like this.
“We went from 1976 till now not having any problems with water flow, now all of a sudden we have.”
Along the Whanganui River Rd, there were a few slips and power lines had been brought down and there were slips on SH4 Parapara which were being cleaned up.
There were flooding issues in Okoia, with only residents being allowed to drive in the area.
Okoia resident Natalie Vartha woke up at midnight on Saturday to find her carpet soaked and a river flowing outside her house.
“We were outside opening gates and knocking boards off the fences to allow the water to flow through,” she said.
“It was taller than the top of my gumboots. [Sunday] morning I have at least a dozen towels on the floor, all of which are saturated. While water has come right through a room we were renovating.”
It was the second time in three months Vartha’s house, where she had lived for nearly five years, had flooded. The carpet in her house was put down only last Thursday, replacing carpet damaged in the February floods.
She said the two floods had impacted her mental health, as well as her husband and young daughter.
“Every time the rain happens, [my daughter] worries her house is going to be flooded. Every time the rain happens, she hates being away from Mum and Dad because it scares her.”
Crowe said the Whanganui River was at no risk of flooding as most of the rain had fallen around the coast rather than further upstream.
Staff had been monitoring the Matarawa Stream as it got high overnight but it appeared to have peaked by midday Sunday.
He said the situation had not been as bad as the floods in February and CD’s focus would now move to making sure people stayed safe.
“We’ve had building inspectors out from this morning assessing those properties which were of issue and giving advice out to the homeowners and the residents,” he said.
Staff were also monitoring the wind, as the soggy ground in the city meant there was still risk of more fallen trees.
“We’re just keeping an eye on things and hopefully it should quieten down.”
He urged people to especially be cautious when driving on flood-damaged roads.
“Driving through flood waters is not advised and people just need to be aware if a road has been closed then insurance companies will take a dim view of people who have issues or accidents on a closed road.”
Central District Police said they responded to a number of weather-related callouts on Sunday morning.
“A number of vehicles have lost traction in floodwater on State Highway 1 at Taihape and slips continue to be reported across the district.
“Police have been alerted to several minor crashes, and motorists are warned to drive to the conditions, especially in areas vulnerable to slips and surface flooding.”
Horizons Regional Council emergency operations centre controller Dr Jon Roygard said staff had monitored the situation throughout the weekend, with multiple waterways rising as rain fell.
By Sunday afternoon river levels were falling or forecast to begin falling.
There had been power outages across the region, especially in the Marton area.
Roygard said upcoming rain was not forecast to be heavy, but it would be steady and fall on already saturated catchments.
The Turakina River was expected to peak on Sunday afternoon and would likely result in Koitiata near Turakina becoming isolated. Rangitīkei District Council had plans in place to support the community, Roygard said.
MetService said the worst of the weather had passed on Sunday afternoon as the low pressure system moved away.
Wind speeds were expected to reduce by Monday along with the rain, with relatively settled weather for the week ahead, Corrigan said.
There may be a few showers on Monday but it would be largely dry, as would Tuesday, with potentially some evening showers on Wednesday.
Thursday and Friday were likely to be fine, with high temperatures around 17C and 18C, slightly higher than average.
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