A farm owner in Tasman says severe weather which has “smashed” her farm overnight is “heartbreaking” for her business.
A state of emergency in place for part of Marlborough, as well as Nelson and Tasman as heavy rain batters the regions. Marlborough District Council has asked residents to avoid all travel unless absolutely necessary.
Wild Oats farm owner Kirsty Lalich told 1News it wasn’t the first time her farm on Pretty Bridge Rd had experienced flooding, but said she’d “never, ever seen it like this”.
“We’ve had rain like that before, but then it’s absolutely smashed it through the night. I woke up about 3am because of the rain, and it just kept coming.”
She said her husband Mike tried to leave the property earlier this morning, but came back 20 minutes later as a slip had blocked their road.
Follow 1News’ live updates of the severe weather across the country here and watch the latest video on TVNZ+
“He said, ‘I’m going to go and get the tractor because there’s a slip’ and I didn’t realise how bad it was because it was still dark,” she said.
Wild Oats farm owner Kirsty Lalich said the severe rain was “heartbreaking” for her business on Pretty Bridge Rd. (Source: Supplied)
Lalich said after ringing around to check on her neighbours, she received a video of her husband attempting to clear debris and water from the road using the tractor.
‘Just ridiculous’
“I mean, it was just ridiculous,” she laughed. “He was trying to take the water off the road, and it was like using a tin can, you know, because it just kept coming and coming straight down from the back through the forest.”
Taking a deep breath, she said her beloved riding arena where she was scheduled to host a child’s birthday party tomorrow had been “smashed” by the severe rain.
“It’s half gone because the creek is basically running straight through it.
“At the road, Pretty Bridge Valley from here is just underwater and its now a raging creek.”
Lalich said she was meant to be running school holiday riding programmes from tomorrow, which likely now wouldn’t go ahead.
“Yeah, it’s so tough and we’re just waiting because there’s a couple of culverts that are really under pressure. So we’re just kind of waiting for them and hope to God that they don’t blow.
“It’s heartbreaking. All the work, all the money, everything that we do.”
She said they don’t yet know the full extent of the damage.
“It’s all in my paddocks and it’s just gone. I don’t even know as a business if we can recover,” she said.
There is still another day of rain forecast and Lalich would have to “wait and see” before establishing how much equipment was salvageable.
An orange heavy rain warning remains in effect until 6pm in the Nelson District about and southeast of SH6 and north of Nelson Lakes, as well as for Marlborough about and north of Seddon.
