Flooding in Christchurch

hmmmmm - I knew it - must be a scout camp coming up :P - it's raining a g a i n . . .. .

Anywhoooo - yesterday in the 12 hours to 6 pm we had more rain falling in our town then the previous 5 months total!! No wonder we have flooding in Christchurch and other parts of the south island. So we sure broke the drought - in a urm well wet manner!! Things aren't to great! Normally any weather system moves through (or over our island) at three days - four tops - but this one has hung around and it looks like it will hang round for another 4 days. I cut and paste a news item here, seems the Army is being mobilized . . . . . ^^

On the other hand the farmers almost loving this weather and urm - the SKI field staff are dancing with joy with all this free snow falling in the mountains.
There is a silver lining in every cloud - although RIGHT now I wish I could see said lining ^^


He did what I would have done - try and make waves!! NOT your traditional way to wash your car - urm - inside and outside. On the other hand - what a fun ride - ok - WHERE is my rubber duckie???







Seems farmers can still move around - funny thing is I have seen one of these things once loose tractions and starting to float - urm swim - urm - ok slowly sink!! they turn upside down . .







from our news services ------>

LATEST: State Highway One has reopened south of Oamaru but the road north of the town remains blocked by floodwaters. The army has been called in to help North Otago residents stranded by flooding. Soldiers and two Unimogs would today attempt to access areas cut off by heavy rain. Two Iroquois helicopters were also on standby as steady rain continued to fall, and snow forecast to hit low lying areas.

Heavy rain isolated Oamaru yesterday and an evacuation assembly point was set up in Kakanui, 11km away. State Highway 1 south of Oamaru reopened today for the second time shortly before midday but SH1 north of Oamaru and SH83 remained closed, Waitaki Civil Defence spokesman Richard Mabon said.``We still advise the public to avoid non-urgent travel as many roads across the district remain impassable,'' he said. Many kindergartens and schools were closed today and school bus services had been cancelled.

Mr Mabon said the council was advising people on rural water supplies to conserve water but were not advising them to boil water at this time. Timaru District Council acting public information manager Philip Howe said the area was lashed by heavy rain overnight and several roads in the Levels, Arowhenua, Milford/Clandeboye, Rosewill and Washdyke areas had been closed. Unnecessary travel should be avoided and all schools in Temuka and Pleasant Point were closed, he said.

More rain was forecast for the area today but river levels had peaked and were now stable. Mr Howe said unfiltered water would enter the Te Moana water supply from 1pm and residents should boil their water. Other rural water supplies may be discoloured but were safe to drink, he said. An Environment Canterbuy spokesman said the area was ``over the worst of it'' and most rivers had peaked late last night or early this morning.

``We've just really got to keep an eye on what the intensity of the rainfalls are going to be for the rest of the day,'' he said. Wellington emergency services were kept busy late last night as flooding swept cars down roads and put residents on evacuation alert. Water flowed on to properties in the northern suburb of Tawa, as well as in Porirua's Titahi Bay, forcing Civil Defence to prepare to evacuate houses from 9pm.

Several roads around Titahi Bay were closed as surface flooding sent cars floating down them. ``There were a couple of places where cars were bobbing around,'' police central communications Inspector Mark Oliver told NZPA early this morning. ``You're talking about a fair amount of water to float a car. Although it may not necessarily be the depth, it may be how fast it's flowing, because if it's where the water has breached the river banks then it generally does that in a fair rush.'' However, roads reopened and evacuations were avoided as the heavy rain subsided.

It seemed to come on very quickly then die down very quickly,'' Mr Oliver said. House evacuations that were going to go ahead never did in the end, so that was good, and by about midnight we heard the last of any major issues. I'm sure there are areas of surface flooding out there, but nothing that's causing any issues for us.'' Mr Oliver said he was not sure if any houses had been damaged by flooding. There were a couple of properties that certainly had water flowing into them, but I'm not sure if anything breached into houses.''

Canterbury, Otago and the Bay of Plenty were also on alert overnight as the wet weather continued to affect many parts of the country. Whakatane police said the heavy rain that had been forecast in the eastern Bay of Plenty, where flooding yesterday forced a family to evacuate, had caused no major problems overnight.

Be good and don't forget your gumies if your playing out in the rain!!!