Marlborough Sounds communities are not yet hitting the panic button in the face of Thursday’s deluge, which has raised the risk of surface flooding and slips.
MetService has issued an orange heavy rain warning for Thursday from 6am to 7pm, for the region north of the Wairau River, including the Marlborough Sounds. Up to 80mm of rain is set to fall in the sounds over the 10-hour period.
Marlborough Emergency Management said that there was an increased risk of slips, land instability, and surface flooding after last week’s heavy rain.
Residents were advised to limit non-essential travel, watch out for surface flooding and slips, and be aware that streams and rivers could rise rapidly.
Marlborough Emergency Management said on Thursday morning that in the Marlborough Sounds, multiple slips and rockfalls had been reported from Oyster Bay to Tumbledown Bay, with further risk of slips for the Whatamango Bay area.
There was also a risk of slips and localised flooding on Queen Charlotte Drive, with Moenui in particular being monitored.
Stefan Schulz of the Kenepuru and Central Sounds Residents Association (KCSRA) said he had just sent a site report to the Civil Defence Emergency Management team, saying the rainfall data was moderate.
All the rain gauge data he had seen so far on Thursday, by about 1pm, was less than 50mm, he said.
“To put that into perspective, my personal warning level here in our bay is 100mm,” Schulz said.
“Unless there is a dramatic change there will be no flooding.
“I think the weather gods were nice to us this time.”
Trevor Hook, owner of Te Mahia Bay Resort, said he would be keeping an eye out as the situation developed.
“I’m just watchful of the weather, that’s all,” Hook said.
“We live in the Sounds, and what will be will be.”
Hook, who said his resort was closed at the moment, had cleared his drains and had sandbags ready, should he need them.
“At this stage, all water is running where it should be,” Hook said.
A spokesperson at Picton Water Taxis said that while they were keeping an eye on the rain, they were not treating it differently than any other wet day and had not taken any precautions.
Pam Montgomery from Okiwi Bay Holiday Park said all was quiet at the holiday park, with only two caravans on site.
“We’re OK here, we didn’t have any flooding last time round,” Montgomery said.
“We’re very lucky.”
Penzance Bay resident Leanne Schmidt said she was concerned that the heavy rain would slow down the roadworks in her area, still repairing damage from the 2022 flood event.
Schmidt said the area got over 300mm of rain last week.
“By some miracle, our roads survived. That’s usually the biggest problem,” she said.
“I was not expecting the roads to come out too well out of this time.
“We’re expecting a lot more rain for a lot longer.
“I’m just a bit anxious about that, really, but we’ll wait and see.”
Schmidt said her stormwater drains were “as clear as they can be”, but the Sounds infrastructure was simply not built for this amount of rainfall.
“[The drains] simply don’t cope with the volume of the water,” she said.
“The same with the roads down here, when these were built, they had no idea this kind of thing was going to happen.
“Now these constant weather events are just challenging everything we’ve built, and there’s just no way you can plan for it … You’re asking the impossible of councils, I feel.
“You just got to be brave, and help yourself and your neighbours as much as possible, really.“
Marlborough Emergency Management said the team was ready to respond and would provide further updates as information came to hand.
Picton and Waikawa was forecast to have high intensity rainfall from noon to late afternoon, with stream flows increasing rapidly.
Flooding on State Highway 6 from Pelorus Bridge to Canvastown is causing a risk of road closure at Daltons Bridge and Te Hoiere Rd.
Elsewhere in the region, access to Northbank Rd, which was covered by a landslide overnight on Monday, was now closed and unlikely to reopen on Thursday.
The Wairau River was not expected to get as high as last week. Based on the forecast models, the maximum expected was 3000 cumecs. On Friday last week, the flow was forecast to peak at 4000 cumecs, which was the evacuation trigger for parts of Spring Creek.
For preparedness advice visit getready.govt.nz/emergency/floods.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 111.
By Kira Carrington, Local Democracy Reporter
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
