Brutal weather system causes chaos across Marlborough

Saturday, 17 July 2021

Wairau Valley deputy chief fire officer Richard Peterson responds to wild weather in Marlborough.

A state of emergency has been declared in Marlborough due to the wild weather, with some residents worried about sewage flooding their houses.

Numerous roads have been closed due to flooding and debris including State Highway 1 between Blenheim and Picton, State Highway 6 between Renwick and Havelock, and State Highway 63 from Renwick to St Arnaud.

Marlborough Deputy Mayor Nadine Taylor declared a state of emergency at 12.20pm to allow the region's emergency response team to evacuate houses.

There have been evacuations for north Renwick as the Wairau River began spilling over the stopbank at Conders Bend. The river has already washed out a bridge along Northbank Rd, north-west of Renwick, isolating about 25 properties.

Volunteer fire crews in Wairau Valley were building barricades and ditches to divert floodwaters from local homes.

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In Wairau Valley vineyards were swamped.

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Wairau Valley resident Alan Jones was out with his chainsaw and tractor helping to remove fallen trees from the road.

Marlborough District Council has advised affected residents to stay with friends and family until the threat subsided. The 221 at-risk households include those on Alma St (north) Gee St, Brook St (north), Inkerman St (north), Oudenarde St, and Terrace Rd.

Taylor said the council's river department was on the ground monitoring the region's stopbanks, which were built to withstand a 1-in-100-year rain event. This included the stopbank at Conders Bend.

Emergency crews were helping with the evacuation of Renwick residents. An information centre has been set up at Renwick's hall, at 27 High St.

Flooding at the State Highway 6 bridge to Havelock.

Taylor said the New Zealand Defence Force had put two unimogs on standby in case ambulance crews were unable to access roads due to floodwaters.

Further south, in the Wairau Valley, floodwaters were rising rapidly. Swathes of water were covering the road, and new streams were pouring down hillsides.

“There’s a tremendous amount of surface water. It’s probably the worst it’s been for some seven or eight years. Streams have burst everywhere,” rural postman and Wairau Valley Residents and Ratepayers Association chair Mike Nesbit said.

By mid-morning on Saturday, the Opaoa River in Blenheim was swollen.

As the rural delivery contractor, Nesbit said he had got through in the morning, but found the road blocked by trees on his return.

“I had to leave my van there and climb over the trees and get somebody to pick me up to bring me home. The trees were still falling with the wind,” he said.

Sheree Cargill talks about the flooding in Westport.

Vineyards in the valley were swamped. Livestock were sheltering on small patches of high land.

A cow was seen standing in water up to its belly. Less than a half hour later, witnesses watched as it desperately tried to reach land and then disappeared in the floodwater.

A stressed Erica Nurse was desperately trying to rescue stock as floodwaters swamped her property. Passersby helped to rescue two sheep from the floodwaters in her paddocks. Fifteen minutes earlier, they had been on dry land, said Nurse.

Just outside the Wairau Valley township, local resident Alan Jones was out in his tractor moving fallen trees out of the road.

“I was cutting one tree and another fell down right beside me,” he said. The road was earlier closed, but had been reopened.

SH1, the Wairau River bridge to the right in Marlborough.

Wairau Valley Volunteer Fire Department were building a barricade and digging a ditch to prevent floodwaters inundating a local home.

“We had a lot of big wind last night. Our max gust so far is 103kmh, which is unusual for us,” said deputy chief fire officer Richard Peterson. “This morning, there was quite a bit of surface flooding, and houses were being inundated.”

The welfare centre had been opened first thing in the morning, he said, as quite a few people had been “washed out” of their homes.

SH6 just before Canvastown, which is between the Pelorus Bridge and Havelock. Water over the road is at least 1.5m deep and strong flowing.

He asked that if people were driving through floodwaters, they should go slowly, as residents nest to the road were getting bow waves through their houses.

“Ideally, don't go rubbernecking,” he said.

“We had a man come through here before at 100kph towing a trailer. It's a 60k zone!” he said.

Marlborough District Council communications manager Glyn Walters said that everyone in Wairau Valley had been asked to boil their water, as there were concerns regarding the chlorination system.

“The number one piece of advice at the moment is to stay home and not go out travelling today,” Walters said.

Havelock residents Roger and Bev McClimont were worried their sewerage, which was leaking into the town's estuary due to the wild weather, would flood their house at high tide, at 2.25pm.

'The last time it rained heavily, in 2016, the water was onlt a thumbspan from flooding our house. Our veggie garden was covered in toilet paper. This time there could be more water,' Roger McClimont said.

'There's not a lot of water going down the river, like it's supposed to. It's all going over the road.”

In Tasman District, residents are being urged to stay home after heavy rain caused flooding in much of the Nelson Bays region.

Roads have been closed, trees felled and some homes evacuated as the rain continued to pour overnight.

Tasman District Council spokesman Chris Choat said while there was surface flooding all over the district, the worst-affected area was at the Riwaka River between Riwaka and Kaiteriteri, where some homes had to be evacuated from 3am Saturday.

Choat said the message from council was for people to “stay home and stay off the roads”.

He said there had also been surface flooding in Golden Bay, cutting off the Takaka township and closing the Takaka Hill.

As of 7am, Waka Kotahi NZTA said SH60 Collingwood to Riwaka, SH6 Motupiko to Kohatu, and SH65 between O`Sullivans Bridge and Shenandoah had all been closed due to the flooding.

Choat said the Riwaka River continued to be the main area of concern, and while the Motueka River was high it was still below its stop banks.

“It is happening as forecast. Apart from Riwaka, we are beginning to see the rivers have peaked and are slowly starting to come down, but there’s still a significant amount of water in the hills.”

Civid Defence Nelson Tasman regional public information manager Paul Shattock said the flooding had been less severe in Nelson, with some minor slips and damage to Rocks Rd.