Ex-Cyclone Gita floods school, homes in Marlborough's Wairau Valley
Wednesday, 21 February 2018
A rural township in Marlborough is facing a massive clean-up operation as several homes, and the local school, are flooded.
Volunteer firefighters have arrived in the Wairau Valley, about 40 kilometres west of Blenheim, to help residents tackle the flooding.
About five properties on Morse St, which is completed flooded, have been damaged overnight by ex-Cyclone Gita.
Wairau Valley School principal Karen O'Donnell said she made the decision to close the school at 6.30am on Wednesday.
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The road leading up to the school and the entrance of the school were flooded making it tricky for cars to drive through.
O'Donnell thought it would take another 24 hours for the water to drain away.
She said the septic tanks at the school may have suffered some damage.
'We are pretty certain the septic tanks have been compromised.'
The school would remain shut until it was safe to reopen.
'We can't open it until we are sure this water round here is safe to be around,' she said.
'We can cordon off part of the school which we know the water hasn't contaminated.'
Wairau Valley resident Colin Thomas said his neighbour had water seeping into his Morse St house at midnight.
'It was just sneaking up under the door,' Thomas said.
His neighbour, who was not at home on Wednesday, had raced outside with towels to try and stop the water from coming inside.
'By the time he put the towels there, it had all come through,' Thomas said. 'He didn't have time to get the [house] sand bagged. By the time he did what he did, it was too late.'
The whole inside of the house was flooded, Thomas said.
'Fortunately the front part of the building is just concrete floor but he has got a lot of stuff sitting on it. The back half is carpet and vinyl but he was fortunate that he was up in time to lift most of the valuable stuff,' he said.
Emma Hancock said she was shocked to see her property flooded when she looked out her window on Tuesday night.
'We went to sleep about 10pm and woke up about [10.45pm] and it [water] was just there.'
This was the second time in a fortnight the property had been flooded by heavy rain, but Gita's downpour was worse.
The water was lying stagnant around one side of her house, close to the front porch.
At the highest point of flooding in her yard, the water came to just below her knee. A lot of her plants and shrubs were under water. She expected it would take until Thursday morning to drain away.
But three Wairau Valley siblings were taking the 'every cloud' approach.
Stoked to get the day off school, Ivy, 7, Willow, 9, and Hudson Hale, 6, were going to spend the day inside watching television and playing games.
Ivy was hoping school would open on Thursday though as it was her eighth birthday and she wanted her friends to wish her a happy birthday.
Fellow Morse St resident Jimmy Neville said he noticed the water starting to fill up in his back yard about 8pm on Tuesday.
Neville, whose property flooded in the flash flood a fortnight ago, said Gita left a bigger mess.
His daughter Xanthe Neville, 3, was not going to let the flood water stop her having fun though, wading through the surface water to her trampoline.
Large slips and blocked fords meant several roads across Marlborough were closed on Wednesday morning as a result of ex-tropical storm Gita.
Two slips and a tree closed the Northbank Rd, north of the Wairau River, while stretches of road in the Marlborough Sounds were blocked by slips.
State Highway 1 was clear from Blenheim to Picton but the Wairau River had burst its banks, with fast-moving brown water spilling over the reserve on the south side near the highway.
The Para Swamp was full of muddy water but was still about 2 metres from the highway.
Marlborough District Council communications manager Glyn Walters said Picton had a sewage overflow following Tuesday night's heavy rain.
'We are advising everyone to not swim in Picton for the next 48 hours, this is a regular occurrence with rain,' he said.
Blenheim also had a number of small sewer overflows and surface water should be avoided.
The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management advised people to stay out of floodwaters. Contaminated floodwater could contain hidden hazards and cause infection.
Marlborough Civil Defence had offered its response team to assist Nelson-Tasman and Buller District.
Sunday's Muddy Buddy race in Havelock had been postponed.
Some roads that were closed on Wednesday morning had since reopened.
TOURISM
Destination Marlborough general manager Jacqui Lloyd says tourists travelling around the region should check in regularly with i-Site visitor centres for updates.
'We are just connecting with the neighbouring regions to find out the damages in the regions so that we can pass on the correct information to travellers,' Lloyd said.
She estimated there were 3000 to 4000 travellers in the region.
'In the meantime, we're encouraging everyone to spend some more time in Marlborough, if they are driving on roads they need to check with NZTA, i-Site and to drive carefully,' Lloyd said.
Roads closed:
Rainbow Road – fords blocked with gravel
Port Underwood Road – Robin Hood Bay to Oyster Bay, large slips
Port Underwood Road – Whites Bay to Robin Hood Bay, culvert washed out
Centre Valley Rd – Bridge abutment scoured out.
Top Valley Rd – past the last house, road access to DOC and forestry plantation road washed out, outside Marlborough District Council maintenance, signing and coning for now.
Drive with care on the following roads:
Northbank Road – One lane, approx. 17km, Slips and tree fall
Northbank Road – One lane, approx. 40km, large slip
Pukaka Road – One lane, approx. 4km, large slip and river scour to road
Kaituna Tuamarina Road – SH6 to Waikakaho Rd, flooding
SH1 – Tuamarina to Picton, small slip near Koromiko passing lanes
SH6 – Surface flooding and debris around Okaramio
SH63 – Surface flooding at various locations along the full length. Centre Valley and Wairau Valley areas worst affected.
SH63 – 2km East of the Wash Bridge, Rock falls
Kenepuru Road – Portage area there is a large slip, down to one lane
Queen Charlotte Drive – Slips in the Ngakuta and Momorangi Bays
Waikakaho Road – road surface scour and tree jams on Iron Bridge
Wairau Township Streets – Surface flooding pooling on many of these roads
Top Valley Rd – river scour at historical location, access not effected