Horizons on duty through night

Horizons Regional Council staff will continue to monitor river levels through the night as rain begins to ease in the region.

Horizons incident control Michael McCartney says although rain is still falling heavily in the Wanganui, Rangitikei and Manawatu districts, this is expected to ease within the next couple of hours.

“Weather conditions in the headwaters of our major river systems are easing and river levels are slowly dropping. Horizons’ Emergency Operation Centre will remain open all night in order to continue to keep an eye on the situation,” says Mr McCartney.

“We’re aware that as the rain continues surface flooding issues may worsen but we’d like people to know that there will be no concerns in regards to their local rivers or streams. All city and district councils are working with fire, police and the Army to deal with surface flooding as quickly as they can and undertaking evacuations as necessary.”

Evacuations have taken place in Wanganui, Hunterville, Koitiata, Feilding, Shannon and Foxton. These evacuations are being overseen by district councils and in all cases evacuees have been well taken care of by their communities and support agencies.

“Once daylight arrives we will be undertaking a thorough reconnaissance of the region to find out what our communities need and deploy resources to help,” says Mr McCartney.

Local states of emergency have been declared for Wanganui and the Rangitikei District. All the river systems in the region are currently under observation and this monitoring will be continue throughout the night.

Updated river information is as follows:

• Pohangina – Has peaked and is receding
• Makino – Level is fluctuating. One gate at Makino floodgates still fully open.
• Oroua – Has peaked. Kopane spillway now operational
• Whanganui – 15.7m peak expected at Wanganui central at 1am Sunday
• Matarawa Stream, Wanganui East – Peaked at 2.2m
• Whangeahu – 11.4m peak prediction at 1am Sunday
• Mangaone – Spillway operational. Has peaked and is receding
• Rangitikei – Peak expected to be 6.3m at 11pm Saturday
• Manawatu – 7.1m peak expected at 11pm Saturday
• Turakina – 11.4m peak expected at 1am
• Moutoa floodgates have been operational since 5pm Saturday

Please see Facebook page www.facebook.com/civildefencemanawatuwanganui for the latest updates across the region.

For information regarding road closures please see the NZTA website http://www.nzta.govt.nz/traffic/current-conditions/highway-info/road/7873/north-island.html or AA Road Watch http://maps.aa.co.nz/traffic/roadwatch

Up-to-date information on river heights and rainfall is also available via Horizons 24 hour toll-free Waterline 0508 4 FLOOD. Horizons’ website is experiencing a large volume of visitors so the river heights and rainfall section has been closed for emergency management purposes only.

ENDS

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