Stuff Digital Edition

Evacuate order as Maitai floods

Sally Kidson and Skara Bohny

About 70 homes in Nelson’s Maitai Valley were being evacuated yesterday as the Maitai River rose rapidly and the mayor urged selfevacuation.

Nelson mayor Rachel Reese said a state of emergency had been announced for Nelson and Tasman.

She said the Maitai River levels had exceeded a 1-in-20-year flood and had risen very quickly.

Reese said the rain was expected to hit further north than it did and instead got ‘‘stuck’’ in the Maitai catchment area.

Civil Defence Nelson Tasman spokesperson Chris Choat said the properties to be evacuated were north of the Nile St Bridge towards the Waahi Taakaro Golf Course.

Police, firefighters and Civil Defence staff were helping people. Some residents had already evacuated to friends and family.

Some houses were inundated with flood water and the message to people who live in that area was not to go home.

Stuff visual journalist Braden Fastier said the Maitai River had burst its banks near Clouston Terrace, flooding about five houses.

He could see a car underwater and said the water had gone through some people’s front doors.

Access was closed to Nile St and an inflatable rescue boat had been used to rescue someone’s cat.

Stuff reporter Fran Chin was in Nile St where the river had burst its banks, flooding several homes.

People she had spoken to on the street were scared and nervous about their homes, she said.

‘‘The thing people keep repeating is that they have never seen anything like this before.’’

Reese said people between Nile St bridge and the golf course upstream should not wait to be evacuated if they had the ability to leave on their own, but any who needed assistance should expect a knock on the door.

‘‘We encourage people to evacuate now.’’

She said people should go to stay with friends and family, but if that was not possible they should go to Saxton Stadium where a welfare centre was being set up. The situation was evolving. Reese said the rain was expected to hit further north.

‘‘We were expecting an annual event, we thought it was going to go further north but it has come down south and seems to have got stuck, so there is a lot [of rain] falling in the Maitai catchment . . . the river has risen quickly.’’

She said council staff and contractors were keeping an eye on other parts of the city but no other locations had to evacuate yet. ‘‘We are well-resourced, we have got good support from [weather forecasters] Niwa and nationally.’’

Lisa Lawrence, whose house overlooks Nile St, was looking down on a sea of brown water.

‘‘I can see the backyard of the houses flooded out. The backyards are filled with things from people’s garages: washing baskets, buckets – anything that can float.

‘‘Looking down Nile St, the way up to the second bridge over the Maitai, all I can see are police

lights, firefighters, a Naiad [boat] going up to each house and trying to find a way in. I have been living here for 15 years and I have never seen anything like it.’’

Maitai Valley Motor Camp manager Lynn Peacock said conditions were ‘‘pretty wild’’.

‘‘The river has breached into the bottom of the camp,’’ Peacock said.

‘‘I don’t think anyone has seen it like this before.’’

Flooding had closed the road, catching out a few residents who would have to spend the night in town, she said. The rest of them were just waiting it out.

‘‘There is nowhere to go, we are locked in. There is no point in panicking, we are just sitting tight, keeping an eye on things.’’

National News

en-nz

2022-08-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://stuff.pressreader.com/article/281659668829834

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