State Highway 1 south of Timaru reopened, Waka Kotahi urges caution – صحيفة الصوت

The flood affected section of State Highway 1, between St Andrews and Glenavy, has been reopened with Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency urging motorists to be prepared for surface damage and flooding in several places.

A short section of SH1, south of the Waitaki River, remains closed due to flooding at Hilderthorpe, after the roads were closed on Tuesday night following heavy rain in the region which caused rivers to rise, schools to close, and an evacuation.

However, there is a detour in place, via Seven Mile Rd, so people can get to Ōamaru.

Waka Kotahi journey manager Nicole Felts said even after highways have re-opened, people should be ready for slower journeys for some time.

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“Everyone will need to take care with freshly created potholes in many places,” Felts said.

“Crews have done a huge amount of work today getting these roads safe enough to be opened. Not all drivers have been patient, and we understand their frustrations, but these road closures are primarily for their safety.

“There is still a significant amount of surface water, flooding and road surface damage around with many warning signs out.

“Please check our traffic map before you head out, so you know where journeys will take longer and require much more care around slips or flooding.”

As flood water and river levels recede across the Timaru District, a significant number of issues on the road network are also being uncovered.

The council’s Civil Defence controller Jayson Ellis said the receding water also causes significant scouring (the removal of gravel) from unsealed roads and can even wash out the edges of our sealed roads.

“Until we can get crews in to remediate the roads people will have to drive with extreme care on the roads, particularly in rural areas, as conditions will be rougher than usual.

“Our crews are our assessing and prioritising road conditions and will get to work repairing them as soon as it’s a bit dryer, and we can get people on site.”

Timaru residents and businesses are urged to continue conserving water to ensure reserves last long enough for the two main sources to clean up.

Extensive flooding on farms near Waimate

Flooding and runoff has been accumulating in the coastal part of the Waimate District between State Highway 1 and the coast, Wainono Lagoon and surrounds and to the north just south of the Waihao River mouth.

The flooding was exacerbated near daybreak on Wednesday morning by breakouts from the Waimate Creek channel and other stream overflows, Environment Canterbury rivers manager Leigh Griffiths said.

“The flooding is not from the Waihao River, but drainage in this area is limited by the high Wainono Lagoon and Waihao River mouth levels.

Griffiths said extensive flooding and limited access makes assessments of damage difficult and large tracts of farmland are underwater but in general this water will be low-velocity and relatively ponded.

“Our staff have been in the area talking to landowners on the ground. We have investigated options for trying to speed the outflow of floodwaters to the sea, but this is not possible due to inundation preventing access to suitable areas. We remain in close contact with Waimate CDEM throughout this event.”

Exports threatened

One of those impacted by flooding was Grant Willocks who got a shock when he arrived for work at Seadown’s Waipopo Orchard on Wednesday morning and was greeted by a pool of water that threatened to destroy 200 pallets of apples destined for export.

The packhouse manager said the orchard’s underground water pump had failed because of the significant amount of water entering their cool store overnight, after heavy rain in South Canterbury on Tuesday, which forced road and school closures, an evacuation and flooding throughout the region.

Willocks said the submersible pump in the cool store was not able to handle the water that had seeped through from the car park and failed overnight .

Fire and Emergency New Zealand was called, and he hoped enough could be done to save the fruit.

“The fire service helped drain the water to take the pressure off the pump,” Willocks said.

“We couldn’t use the forklift to move the fruit to higher ground because the waves would damage the other fruit.

“The water level has gone down now, and then we’ll be assessing the damage to the fruit. We have diggers here running pipes from the cool store for better drainage, so the pump won’t fail again.”

Willocks said he had lived in South Canterbury for a number of years and had seen his share of significant rainfall, but it was the saturated ground from the rain last week and the continued rain this week that had caused the flood at the cool store.

“There’s been some flooding in the orchards too,” he said.

Outlook for Thursday

MetService meteorologist Karl Loots said a few showers are forecast early on Thursday morning with another front moving in, but Loots said this is not expected to be as severe.