Flooding hits Southland town amid fears worse to come

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

Flooding in Gore, as seen from the air.

The Southland town of Gore has flooded, with the Mataura River bursting its banks, following evacuations in Southland sparked by the river's rise.

Gore residents will be able to return to their homes at 6pm on Wednesday, while Mataura and Wyndham will not be able to return tomorrow.

Civil Defence controller Ian Davidson-Watts made the decision to allow people who live in Gore to go home after assessments of the river flows and condition of the flood bank in the town.

More than 2400 Gore residents were evacuated.

**READ MORE:

A house in Gore, close to the Mataura River, which has been evacuated.

* Live: Towns evacuated as rivers rise

The Mataura River in flood on Wednesday morning - the river level rose after the video was taken. The building containing ouvea premix is upstream on the right.

* Gore warned of early flood peaks**

Earlier, one person was handcuffed by police after refusing to leave his property and animals behind.

Have you been affected by the floods or been evacuated? Send your tips, photos and videos through to newstips@stuff.co.nz.

Chris Couzens, a pensioner in Mataura, about 11 kilometres south of Gore, said he and his wife were taken to the police station after they did not want to leave their dog, caged parrots and pedigree poultry at their house.

'These are like our children … our animals were perfectly savable.'

Civil Defence said the river breached its stopbanks at Salford St in the town, by the old Gore Hospital.

Drone footage on Wednesday morning shows flooded paddocks and swollen rivers.

The flooding in Gore in February was captured from above.

'There is water in the town,' a spokesperson said.

There had also been reports of power cuts in the central business area.

A civil defence spokesperson said south Gore was starting to be inundated with floodwaters, but it was unknown whether any properties had been flooded.

'We don't know for sure whether any homes have been flooded but there is definitely a lot of water around.

'There is a concern about the [wastewater] ponds. We would urge people to treat all floodwaters as being contaminated, and to boil water for at least a minute before drinking it, as per the boil water notice that has been issued.'

Flooding around Gore on Wednesday morning.

Residents in the towns of Mataura and Wyndham were also ordered to evacuate, with locals advised to get to higher ground.

DEFENCE FORCE CHOPPER TO EVACUATE REST HOME RESIDENTS

The extent of the flooding in Southland is shown in this aerial photo.

The Defence Force confirmed a Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter was tasked with helping to evacuate people from a rest home in Wyndham.

Wyndham is a small town approximately 5km from Edendale in Southland. The residents of the town were ordered to evacuate on Wednesday.

18 residents of Wyndham and Districts Community Rest Home were evacuated to Mimihau Hall in Wyndham on Wednesday. They were then taken to Southland Hospital by helicopter.

In addition to the helicopter which left RNZAF Base Ohakea for Invercargill on Wednesday morning, two Unimogs and personnel are helping to evacuate people trapped in Southland.

The Mataura River in flood with the Alliance meat works, on the left, and the closed paper mill on the right.

HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE

Gore district council chief executive Steve Parry said he couldn't rule out that ouvea premix being stored in the former paper mill at Mataura was going to be a problem.

The class six hazardous substance would give off ammonia gas if it got wet, so people had been evacuated from the area.

The building it was in was right next to the Mataura River.

The building flooded in the 1978 floods.

Caldwell Contracting staff Charlie Craig, left, and Bruce O'Reilly using an umbilical pump to pump the water out and back over the stock bank towards the river.

'There are no real measures we can take, we are going to have to react to what unfolds'.

Parry said volunteers had sandbagged the building on Wednesday morning and were leaving before the flood hit its peak.

Jason Peek and his dog Duece waiting to catch the evacuation bus from Mataura.

'I can't rule it out, we're just doing the best we can.

'We are definitely worried, but we are doing all we can do to make that building as resilient as possible.'

Gore resident David Byron looks out at the river flowing into the paddocks on the other side of the flood bank from his home.

He had spoken to the building caretaker, who confirmed that the inside of the building was still dry.

EVACUATIONS

A farmer in a tractor works hard to pick up baleage from a flooded paddock near Gore.

Stranded Russian family, from left, Inga Popova, daughter Alisa Sabantseva, 23, and Igor Sabantsev at the welfare centre set up at the Calvin Community Church.

Rising river levels in Southland had earlier sparked evacuation orders in the town and Mataura, with the river peaking in Gore and yet to reach maximum flow in the other town.

Evacuations had been extended to Wyndham shortly after 9am on Wednesday. Residents of Riversdale were also asked to prepare to evacuate.

The river was expected to peak at Gore before 9am, Mataura at 10.50am, and Wyndham at 2.20pm on Wednesday.

Gore woman Roche de la Mare and her 1-week-old baby boy Jakierre were evacuated from their home.

De la Mare lived with her sister-in-law Sarah Meadows, who was 7 months pregnant, and has a 2-year old girl, Skylar.

John Kirk says it he has never seen as much water lying around Gore in his 19 years living at his property overlooking the town.

Meadows said the family was warned on Tuesday night to prepare for evacuation, and didn't get much sleep. They were told to leave their central Gore home about 8am on Wednesday.

A State of Emergency has been extended to include all of Southland as water levels continue to rise and cause major damage.

'Most of Roche's stuff was still packed from the hospital so we were quite lucky,' Meadows said.

A State of Emergency has been declared in Southland as extensive flooding causes issues around the region.

Luckily for the family, Meadows' mother-in-law had just moved to Gore two weeks ago, from Dunedin. They had all moved to her house until they were allowed to return home.

Meadows' father was stuck in East Gore. 'He wasn't able to get out in time … he missed the bridge closure.'

Both Calvin Community Hub on Robertson Street and the Croydon Lodge were acting as evacuation points for Gore residents, while Mataura locals would be bused to the Edendale community hubs at Edendale Presbyterian Church and the Christian Activity Centre.

Buses were departing the Mataura Presbyterian Church carpark. Two further welfare centres are open for evacuees - Waimumu Hall and the Southern Field Days site.

Gore district mayor Tracy Hicks said the levels of the Mataura River had been 'pretty constant, they have gone up and down a bit, but there is a lot of water still to arrive'.

Large parts of Southland are underwater after days of heavy rain.

He said residents in low-lying parts of Gore should self-evacuate, and if they were unable to, help was available from police and emergency services.

When asked if the evacuation was precautionary or if the river was going to flood the township, he said: 'who knows. Floods have minds of their own. It's been 42 years since the 1978 flood at Mataura and everyone thought they had that under control to start with.'

The flooding was particularly bad in Gore.

Phil Bryant wasn't impressed that he had to leave. 'I went through the 1980s flood and we never had to leave,' he said.

He was busy helping other elderly neighbours get out of their flats.

Flooding in the area has closed roads and schools.

Mataura Community Board chairman Alan Taylor was also helping residents in the township evacuate on Wednesday morning.

He said people were worried about leaving their homes.

More of the flooding around Gore on Tuesday.

'We've just got to hope they can come back to dry houses'.

STATE OF EMERGENCY

A state of emergency remained in Southland following heavy rain. It was declared by Cook on Tuesday afternoon following Monday's declaration for Milford Sound, where 195 tourists remained trapped.

Late on Tuesday, Emergency Management Southland said modelling data suggested levels in the Mataura catchment could hit levels seen the 1999 floods.

The Gore District Council was advising motorists not to travel unless it was absolutely necessary.

Fire and Emergency NZ spokeswoman Lyn Crosson said they had received 45 weather related calls in the last 24 hours, mostly relating to flooding in houses in Southland and Otago.

She said Gore was the most badly affected.

Firefighters would be assisting police and Civil Defence to help those evacuating to get out of their homes.

ROADS, SCHOOLS CLOSED

Several state highways in the area are closed: SH1 Gore to Clinton, SH1 Mataura to Gore, SH90 McNab to Tapanui, from SH1 intersection to Station Rd, SH90 between SH1 and Station Rd. SH97 Mossburn to SH6 intersection SH97 is CLOSED. State Highway 94 is closed from Park Boundary and SH96 from Lumsden to Frankton.

Flooding in the district and in West Otago had forced 17 schools and two early childhood centres to close on Tuesday. The closures affected 1877 school students and 70 children in early childhood education.

Southland Federated Farmers vice president Bernadette Hunt said she had not heard of any catastrophic damage in the region, but farmer's fences and culverts could be damaged.

'We'll all cope, as long as a floodbank doesn't burst or something like that.'

Beef + Lamb New Zealand urged farmers in the region to move their stock to higher ground.

Emergency Management Southland are urging anyone in Dunedin wanting to return to Invercargill to stay in Dunedin. There's concern about the amount of people taking the coastal road in an effort to get back from Dunedin and then getting stuck at Fortrose.

'WORST IT'S BEEN'

Gore resident David Byron said: 'I've lived here for 20 years and this is definitely the worst it's been, this is the fastest I've ever seen it [river] rise.

'I think it's going to get as bad as the [19]78 flood. I went for a drive at half past nine this morning and it was nothing and the rain hasn't stopped since.

'The way things are going we're looking at a 100 year event.'

Australian tourists Sally and Daryl Rowley, who were heading to Queenstown, were left stranded in Gore because of roads being closed.

'We did the coastal trip up to Te Anau and then tried to get to Queenstown, but they kept detouring us. The last holiday we had was at Eagle Point in Australia, and we got kicked out of there because of bush fires. Looking at the weather I don't think we'll be able to get to Queenstown tomorrow.'

Calvin Community Church Minister Ken Williams said from about 5pm on Tuesday they had people arrive and from then every 10 minutes there seemed to be a new lot of people arrive.

'We've got some beds here … we've had about 16 beds and Emergency Southland are bringing in more beds. We were activated by the council about 3pm and told to prepare for the possibility of [people needing somewhere to go].'

Welfare Centres will be opened at that time at the Cross Recreation Centre in Glasgow St, Balclutha and at the Owaka Community Centre.

A community hub has also been set up at the Lumsden Community Hall for support and advice for anybody caught up in the flooding.