‘Hell of a lot of work’: State of emergency set to last a week as heavy rain watch for city lifts
Tuesday, 17 February 2026
MetService has lifted its heavy rain watch for Christchurch, but Banks Peninsula faces a week-long state of emergency after heavy rain caused widespread flooding and damage.
“There’s gonna be a hell of a lot of work [to do]” Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger said.
He declared a state of emergency for Banks Peninsula at midday on Tuesday after assessing widespread flooding, communications blackouts and power outages across the region.
“There’s no communications over there, you can’t ring anyone. You can text people on 021, but nothing else works. Power’s off in a number of places,” he said.
The state of emergency would likely run for a week, he said, as the region dealt with bridge washouts, road closures and widespread damage.
An orange heavy rain warning for Banks Peninsula remained in place until 6pm, with MetService meteorologists saying it was unlikely to be extended.
Mauger said closer to Christchurch it looked “just like a wet day”, but the further he travelled away from the city, the worse the flooding became, with water crossing the road in about half a dozen places.
Little River was among the worst hit, with resident Greg Boyle describing the damage as “unbelievable”. He feared they had lost everything in the flooding and had fled to higher ground.
The main road through Little River flooded up to 1.2 metres deep, more than 1000 properties across Banks Peninsula lost power, and several schools were forced to close for the day.
State Highway 75 between Christchurch and Akaroa was closed and would remain so overnight.
Lake Forsyth, which drains the Little River catchment, was opened to the sea on Tuesday afternoon.
The lake’s water level has been contentious since flooding last May, when farmers accused the city council of not opening the lake early enough.
Mauger believed they “weren’t expecting rain like this” before it hit.
“Having said that, it’s probably no consolation to the people and places it’s flooded”.
Mauger said a mechanical solution using pipes to control lake levels, proposed after the May weather event, was being designed.
“Every time we open the lake, it costs money, apart from the fact it’s doing a lot of damage to people upstream. So let’s just spend the money and do it once.”
As for Christchurch city, there were no reports of houses flooded above floor level, he said, with flooding mainly affecting lower parts of the Heathcote River “where it always used to flood”, including Clarendon Tce and Richardson Tce.
Water had been held back in the big reservoirs along Sparks Rd, he said.
“It seems to be as good as we can expect for the amount of rain we have.”
Christchurch tradie Nathan Reid does not live near a river, so when he arrived at a job by the Heathcote River in Beckenham and found the road flooded above his van tyres - well, he decided to press on and get the job done anyway.
“For people who don't get flooding all the time, it’s really strange,” the Linwood plasterer said.
“We just basically did what we had to do and made the decision that once low tide comes, we’ll get out of there.”
Afterwards, he walked through water up to his shins to test if he could drive his van out. He was grateful the van seals had done their job and kept the inside dry.
Sam Guerin moved to Christchurch from Wellington three months ago. He woke on Tuesday to a burst Heathcote River flooding his Hunter Tce, Beckenham, property.
He said he’d been warned it was a flood management area, so knew there was some risk of flooding, but it was “sort of worse” than he expected.
About 9.30am, it was starting to recede. He said it was a “bit of excitement” for the family.
It was James Gillies’ first flood event in his new home, too, since moving to Beckenham’s Waimea Tce shortly before Christmas.
“We had some warning,” Gillies said about flood risk. “We expected the street, but we didn’t expect our front yard would be under water.”
Because the house was raised, he felt “fairly safe”, but worried about the refrigerator and remaining house contents still to be unpacked in the lower-lying garage, which was surrounded by flood water.
Like many of his neighbours, he moved his car to higher ground on Birdwood Ave. The flooding had receded throughout Tuesday morning, he said.
In Lyttelton Harbour, the weather caused two vessels to come off their moorings: the Wayward - an 11m vessel grounded in Corsair Bay - and the Manu Moana II, a 9.7m vessel in Cass Bay.
Roads closed in Christchurch city include:
Clarendon Terrace from Opawa Road to Tavender Street
Eastern Terrace from Birdwood Avenue to Tennyson Street
Waimea Terrace from Riverview Street to Malcolm Avenue
Ford Road from Opawa Road to 42 Ford Road
Richardson Terrace from Opawa Road to Mackenzie Road
Fifield Terrace from Beckford Street to 364 Riverlaw Terrace
New Brighton Road between Rawson Street and Pages Road.
Summit Road is closed from Sign of the Kiwi to Gebbies Pass Road
Summit Road between Gebbies Pass and Dyers Pass is closed due to slips
Summit Road is closed from Sign of the Kiwi towards Sugar Loaf
Many roads are also closed in Banks Peninsula.