Stranded travellers and residents hunkering down in flooded Rangitata as roads remain closed

Saturday, 7 December 2019

The Rangitata River Mouth is flowing fast and is taking dirt out to sea a long way off the coastline.

People stuck near flooded Rangitata are hunkering down on Saturday night, after being told not to expect roads to reopen until the morning.

Hotels and campgrounds were offering to put stranded people up for the night, after Timaru District Council indicated nobody would be travelling far thanks to closed roads and bridges.

Earlier it ordered the evacuation of residents between McLelland, Orion Rangitata Mouth roads, and Rangitata River, to evacuate immediately, later telling those who had yet to leave to stay put - and to call 111 if they felt unsafe.

The order came as a state of emergency was declared in the Timaru District following significant rainfall that led to widespread flooding and slips, considered a one in 20 year event.

Are you affected by the evacuations? Email newstips@stuff.co.nz

**READ MORE:

The Rangitata River from the air after it burst its banks on Saturday morning.

* Braided river chicks and eggs suffer after major deluge in the Rangitata River

* Rangitata River flow still high, council reports road closures

* Major study of Rangitata River a 'game changer'**

State Highway 1 at the Rangitata Bridge, and the Upper Rangitata Bridge at Arundel, was closed and people have been warned not to cross the bridge. Police were on standby to turn people around.

Both bridges would remain closed until 7am Sunday, when it would be reinspected, according to Timaru District Council.

Glenn Shaw, Rangitata Camp resident says everyone at the Rangitata Campgroud and Rangitata huts have been told to evacuate and now they are just waiting for further information from Civil Defence.

People driving north from Timaru and south from Christchurch were turned back at Rangitata and Arundel and there was no alternative route.

Rangitata Bridge was closed after extreme rain in the region.

The Timaru District Council's Facebook page was on Saturday night directing people needed accommodation to generous offers from hotels and campgrounds.

Evacuations were also being offered by private helicopter companies.

Heliventures NZ was initially offering charter flights between Oamaru and Christchurch for people who needed to be somewhere urgently and couldn't wait for the road closure.

But as of 5pm on Saturday Heliventures NZ chief executive Nicki McMillan said the company had been overwhelmed with calls from people desperate to find alternative travel options because of road closures, and they were at capacity.

'We have been inundated with calls from people from Oamaru, Timaru, Ashburton and Christchurch - people needing to catch international flights, attend funerals, sick people. I've had probably 100 phone calls and messages. Unfortunately, we are at full capacity … it's chaotic.'

Sam Cox of Southern Helicopters said it had been an 'incredibly busy' day helping with evacuations of both locals and tourists.

'I've never seen the river as high as this before, it's quite a sight,' Cox said.

Australian tourist Phil Flint talks about the Rangitata River breaking its banks on Saturday morning.

He expected there would be a lot of damage to people's property as a result of the floods, and he didn't expect his work to let up over the next day.

Rangitata River Camping Ground manager Gillian McCloy-Long said they had voluntarily decided to evacuate and close the camp on Saturday due to rising river levels.

'The paddock out the back was starting to fill up … about 35 caravans have been moved. My husband and I are staying in Ashburton with our daughter and the camp will be closed until at least Monday.'

A further 60-80mm of rainfall at the headlands, and 30-60mm 10 kms east of the Main Divide was expected from midnight, a Timaru District Council spokesman said.

At the Rangitata Camping Grounds, Glenn Shaw said they had received hourly updates from Civil Defence since 7am, when they were first ordered to evacuate.

'We don't know how bad it will get,' Shaw said.

Rangitata Huts resident Linda Whipp said the power was likely to be out at her hut for at least four days.

Environment Canterbury regional lead river engineer Sean McCracken said river flows in the lower catchment areas were expected to increase, peaking between 4pm and 7pm, as the heavy rainfall at the river head made its way to the coast.

Traffic backed up to the Rangitata Bridge after the Rangitata River breached its banks.

Land owners along the river had been notified ahead of the flooding. Those on the southern side of the river were more likely to be affected due to the less well defined river banks.

Potential damage caused by flooding included flattening of crops by fast moving water, smothering of crops by silt and gravel residue and erosion.

Federated Farmers South Canterbury president Jason Grant said affected properties along the river bank were mainly dairy farms.

During a helicopter flight over the affected area Grant said from what he could see most cows appeared to be safe on higher paddocks that had become islands.

State Highway 1 was closed at Rangitata Bridge, causing massive delays.

Farm owners had reluctantly left their properties after a mid afternoon evacuation notice by Civil Defence.

'We'll have to wait and see what happens overnight.'

Timaru District Council communications manager Stephen Doran said it was unlikely the two closed bridges would reopen tonight.

'The bridges will be reinspected tomorrow….The State Highway 1 bridge at Rangitata and the upper Rangitata Bridge at Arundel are the two only routes over the river so you can't get from Christchurch to Dunedin at the moment.'

'[Traffic] is calming down but there are still a few people getting turned away at the bridge.'

One in 20 year flooding

Torrential rain in the upper catchment of the Rangitata River on Friday and Saturday morning caused waters to rise rapidly.

The river was flowing around 2265 cumecs, or cubic metres at the gorge, with extreme flows of 3000 cumecs or more forecast later on Saturday.

People driving north from Timaru and south from Christchurch were turned back at Rangitata and Arundel.

A council spokesman said the river flow was 10 times the usual flow of 300 cumecs.

Earlier on Saturday Rangitata resident Cor Bot said the river was flowing as high as he had ever seen it.

'The only comparable incident was about 10 years ago. We've been warned to evacuate but at this stage, we're just going with the flow,' Bot said.

'Civil Defence and the police and everyone has been really good in keeping us informed, but we feel we'd be pretty safe where we are.'

Large volumes of water flow down Rangitata River after heavy rain on Wednesday.

Australian tourists Phil Flint, Autumn Flint and Renee Samuel arrived in Canterbury via Wanaka on Saturday.

Bob Mortimer and Russell Wood listen to the Civil Defence Radio from Rangitata huts to keep up to date with the flooding information.

The trip had been 'an adventure', Phil Flint said.

'Everywhere we've gone on our trip there's been high lakes and heavy rain. We haven't seen anything like it,' he said.

'We've got a plane to catch on Sunday so we're hoping things will be fine by then.'

Rangitata Oasis cafe and tea rooms owners Ian and Gail Jacobs had 'everything prepared' just in case they needed to move at short notice.

Campers along the Rangitata River have been told to evacuate after extreme rain.

They were told about the civil defence warning early on Saturday morning.

'We're good at the moment, but we'll see what happens over the next few hours,' Gail Jacobs said.

Timaru District Council said in a statement at 10.30am on Saturday that campers along the river needed to evacuate.

People in Rangitata township and hut holders also needed to be ready to evacuate at short notice, the council said.

Floodwater was flowing down the South Branch, with several other vulnerable areas at risk of river breakouts.

Civil Defence information centres are being set up in the Geraldine public library and the Alpine Community Centre in Temuka.

Wild weather in South Island

At 4.30pm on Saturday severe thunderstorm wearnings were also in place for Marlborough and Nelson, which were expected to lie near Picton, Waikawa and inner Marlborough Sounds, according to MetService.

MetService said the thunderstorms would likely be accompanied by large hail, damaging wind gusts and possible tornadoes.

A severe thunderstorm watch remains in force for Hawke's Bay, too.

A thunderstorm warning for Wellington was lifted.

An update from the NZ Transport Agency at 4.15pm said State Highway 6 remained closed from Hokitika to Makarora, Otago.

The section of highway from Haast to Makarora was expected to re-open to one lane on Sunday at 10am and close again at 4pm.

Westland District Mayor Bruce Smith said the worst of the weather appeared to be over and it was good news the road would be re-opened from Haast tomorrow.

Slips to the south of Hari Hari near Mt Hercules would take some time to fix, he said.

'It's a significant problem.'

The road closure was very negative for tourism businesses in the region, Smith said.

'It's not just the day or two that it take for them to re-open, it's the loss of confidence that the operators have. Every time something like this happens they are questioning how viable it is to come this way where there is always a risk of road closure.

'The residents are very very resilient. They're West Coasters, and this is not unusual and it's certainly not unusual in spring time.'

The last time the region was hit by similar weather disruption was in 1988 when the Grey River flooded, Smith said.

'So it's been a while but it's not unusual.'

Smith said the road closures were not preventable.

'You can't prevent it, it's nature…it's about a bad storm with close to 400 mm [of rainfall] and we've just got a very wet spring.

'There's certainly nothing wrong with our roads, our roads are as good as anywhere but when a mountain slides down on a road you've got to clear it.'

Prevention measures underway in Queenstown

Further south, the Queenstown Lakes District Council has delivered 1000 more sandbags to businesses across the region, and removed 40 truckloads of driftwood from Lake Wanaka.

Other flood prevention measures included building a 130 metre-long concrete block wall at Queenstown Bay to protect the nearby pump station and Bathhouse Café from wave action.

In Wanaka, some wastewater services in the Central Business District had been turned off on Saturday to protect the network in case of further lake level rises.

There was also restricted pedestrian access close to the lakefront, and a section of road was closed to vehicles on Ardmore Street from Lakeside Road to McDougall Street, and the lower part of Helwick Street between Dunmore and Ardmore Streets. A temporary 30kmh speed limit remained in some places.

Road closures elsewhere in the district include Paradise Road, Rees Valley Road, Kinloch Road, The Branches Road (from the boulders) and Mt Aspiring Road (from Roys Peak).

Otago Regional Council (ORC) and QLDC were continuing to monitor lake and river levels, and were prepared to implement local road closures in affected areas if necessary, a QLDC spokesperson said.

Harbour Master Marty Black said people should stay off lakes and rivers due to the possibility of floating debris and submerged structures.

The ORC did not predict further significant increases in the levels of Lakes Wānaka and Wakatipu.

Lake Wānaka is predicted to reach 280.43m while Lake Wakatipu will now peak on Monday morning at 311.4m. This would see lakes peak at levels well over a metre below the 1999 level for Wakatipu and just under a metre below for Wānaka.

On the West Coast, SH6 from Makarora to Haast will be open to one lane at Clarke Bluff from 10am Sunday.

The road will be closed overnight from 4pm each day until further notice. Other road closures include: SH6 Haast to Fox Glacier; SH6 Fox Glacier to Franz Josef; SH6 Franz Josef to Hokitika.

Essential vehicles only will be allowed from Hokitika to Harihari.