West Coast Emergency Management are closely monitoring the severe weather forecast for Westland on Friday through to Saturday morning.

This morning MetService issued an orange rain warning for all three districts, Westland, Grey and Buller. Westland is forecast to receive up to 400mm through today until lunchtime tomorrow. Grey and Buller districts are forecast to receive lesser amounts of up to 150mm early tomorrow morning through Saturday.

West Coast Emergency Management is closely monitoring the forecast and keeping connected with communities and agencies over the next couple of days. An agency briefing will take place this morning to share information and planning arrangements.

Manager, Claire Brown said “It is not unusual for these areas to receive these amounts of rainfall, however as always, we need to be closely monitoring and ready to activate, if need be, particularly for the Westland district”.

Our community coordinators have been contacted and we are working closely with partner agencies as we head into this weather event.

Members of the public are advised to keep up to date with weather information as rivers may rise quickly, surface flooding and slips are possible and driving conditions could be hazardous”.

People in the area are strongly encouraged to keep up to date with the latest information by: • checking state highway conditions at https://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/traffic/southisland • monitoring weather conditions at https://www.metservice.com/warnings/home

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