Rising river leaves clubs to clean up

WASHED AWAY: One of the Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club pontoons, carried down the river.210615WCBRCUNION03

It is the natural resource they train on to become champions, but on the weekend the Whanganui River rose up to swamp the sports clubs who nestle near its banks.

Water levels which rose to over 15.7m overwhelmed the Aramoho Wanganui Rowing, Nga Tawa, and Union Boat sheds from Taupo Quay back up along Somme Parade, as it did the Whanganui Multisport and Triathlon Club across the water on Anzac Parade.

At Aramoho, where the club has previously been threatened by the rising waters on its two-storey hillside building, experienced club members went down at 11pm to move boats and equipment to the top storey.

However, the river kept rising and reached a metre above the second tier floor - with the building literally still a part of the running river yesterday afternoon.

"Devastated, absolutely," said club coach Ian Weenink.

"It's got through the whole top storey " we're in a hell of a mess.

"Never, ever, has it been through the top storey, to the lounge."

The water and silt left behind had destroyed the carpets, while club members were able to clear away the mud outside only as far as the slightly lowered river level, working together to lift the boats they had moved upstairs away from the building as the river gurgled under the floorboards beneath them.

"Quite sad at the moment. There's a lump in the throat," said Weenink, who had built the lounge with other volunteers over 20 years ago.

They will have to open up the walls and get the lining off in order to begin repairs, including blasting out the silt with pressure hoses.

"We've just spent a good couple of $100,000 in alterations."

Downstairs, the club's five motorboats remained submerged while the pontoons on the river had washed away.

Back down the quay at the Union Boat Club, spokesman Pat Carroll was trying to see the funny side.

"I went for a row down the quay. Nice, calm water actually, ironically. It was 200mm higher than we thought, so a few of our boats on the second tier racks [also] started floating."

Carroll and others removed the supports of the lower tier craft so they could float, so his main concern was being allowed back into the shed by Civil Defence as the waters receded so they could put them back on to avoid damage.

They will then use water from the fire hydrant to clear out the silt.

"Bit of a clean up, hopefully nothing's been damaged," said Carroll.

Working in waist-deep water until 1am, Carroll said he noticed he stopped shivering, which was not a good sign, so went home to get a wet suit.

He was going back at 2.30am when "the Civil Defence people went mental at us".