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Parts of the South Island were battered and bruised amid unusual storms in the region last night, heavy rains flooding roads and flooding a city of Canterbury with heavy hail.
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The intense weather has left a huge cleanup job and an even higher damage bill. Source: 1 NEWS
The small town of Geraldine in Canterbury took a beating after large amounts of hail fell during a thunderstorm last night.
“We all stood in the hallway and looked at him through the windows and hoped he wasn’t going to break the house. It was pretty scary, ”resident Vanessa Harper told 1 NEWS.
“Some of the paint has been removed from the roof of our house, believe it or not. All of our trees, the leaves are uprooted, ”added resident Roger Harper.
The hail, with stones up to 30mm in size, fell for up to an hour after a fast-moving storm hit the region around 7:30 pm yesterday.
Further south, a bistro in the small town of Middlemarch in Otago flooded for the second time in as many years after heavy rains.
“I think the biggest damage to us is the fact that we are closed, probably for the rest of the season, depending on how long this takes to fix,” said Norma Emerson, owner of Tap & Dough. “And these are losses that we really cannot afford in addition to the losses from Covid.”
Otago Regional Councilor Kate Wilson said that while there was “less structural damage” after yesterday’s storm, several properties were flooded “and that’s really tough for those businesses.”
As the waters recede, roads remain closed throughout North and Central Otago and Southland.
MetService forecaster Hordor Thordarson said some locations saw an excess of 100 millimeters of rain over the southeast of the South Island, calling it “very unusual for those areas.”
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said that while an assessment is underway, he “wouldn’t be surprised” if there was “something in the six-figure range” in damage to the region’s highway network.
The large amount of water also overwhelmed many sewage systems, and tanker trucks were brought in to supply drinking water to Middlemarch and Patearoa.
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Damage to roads in one district is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Source: 1 NEWS
Residents of Otematata, Duntroon and Waihemo were advised to boil and conserve drinking water until further notice.
Kircher said the weather has “brought something good,” with heavy rain breaking the drought. However, some agricultural lands have been flooded.
In the meantime, swimmers and shippers were warned to wait several days before reusing the lakes and rivers to clear the debris.
But the wait is finally over for festival goers near Dunedin, with some 200 bettors and the team cleared to return home after having to wait overnight due to flooding.
“We were actually prepared for a Covid outbreak and instead we have flooding, but we are prepared anyway,” said Annabel Roy of Whare Flat Festival.
