Monitoring of river levels to continue for next few days

Horizons Regional Council have been keeping a close eye on river levels overnight and will continue to monitor the situation for the next few days.

Horizons incident controller Craig Grant says the rain event experienced last night resulted in slips, road closures, precautionary evacuations and localised flooding in a number of districts.

“Our emergency management staff were actively watching the Manawatū, Ōroua, Makino, Turakina and Mangaone river systems,” says Mr Grant.

“This monitoring saw the closure of the Makino floodgates at 11pm to divert water away from the township. Within the town the stream stayed high due to localised rainfall however was contained within its banks.

“There was a minor breach down near Awahuri Road which has seen water get into the adjoining paddock so we will be keeping an eye on that as we wait for water levels to drop.”

Mr Grant says today Horizons and district council staff will be assessing any damage occurred overnight.
“We will also continue to monitor the situation throughout the day and put plans in place to maintain our watch overnight and for the next few days with more rain predicted.”

Up-to-date information on river heights and rainfall is available via Horizons 24 hour toll-free Waterline 0508 4 FLOOD or via our website www.horizons.govt.nz

Updates will also be posted to the Manawatū-Whanganui Civil Defence page. 

For weather forecasting information please see Metservice.