Moutoa floodgates closed overnight

Horizons Regional Council have closed the Moutoa floodgates with Manawatū River levels dropping overnight.

Horizons emergency management controller Ged Shirley says opening the gates wider last night to increase the flow down the spillway has alleviated pressure on the main stem successfully.
 
“Around 5pm last night we had some concerns around water backing up in the Main Drain and threatening properties in the Rangiotu area due to overtopping or breaching. To address this we opened the Moutoa floodgates further, located between Shannon and Foxton, to ease pressure upstream at Rangiotu.
 
“At this point we worked with Manawatū District Council to ensure all residents in the area were contacted and measures were put in place for possible evacuations. By midnight last night the Main Drain had stopped overtopping and was contained back within its banks.
 
“The call to fully close the Moutoa floodgates was made at 2.15am as catchment river levels had dropped. This decision was made to ensure a decent flow was maintained down the main stem to minimise sediment deposits and reduced channel capacity.
 
“There will still be some surface flooding around so suggest people take care if driving in the area.”
 
Mr Shirley says the focus for today is assessing flood protection assets and transitioning back to duty officers.
 
“We’re aiming to undertake an aerial inspection of our assets in the lower Ōroua catchment and Taonui Basin, including the Makino Stream, Main Drain and Moutoa area today. This will help us assess the condition of our stopbanks and whether there is any repairs required.
 
“The Foxton Beach flood barrier will be removed later this afternoon as the risk of storm surge has now passed. We will also be assessing flood extents and modelling on the Mangaone and Makino streams, clearing debris at the Makino floodgates near Feilding and refurbishing the Moutoa floodgate tower now crews have left.
 
“Looking ahead to weather across the region, we should have a break from rain for a couple of days which will allow river levels to keep dropping. There is a weather system coming on Friday that has some uncertainty to it currently so we be will be keeping an eye on that.
 
“Our emergency operations centre will revert back to duty officers today who will continue to monitor the situation over the next few days. There is also still a lot of wind around, including a strong warning for the Tararua District, so would like to remind people to take care as this combined with saturated soils may see trees down, erosion, landslips and debris.
 
“Since the weekend there’s been a number of emergency management staff from our council and the city and district councils involved in responding to this event. We’d like to thank them all for their hard work which has helped provide reassurance to our communities across the region.”
 
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: https://www.facebook.com/civildefencemanawatuwhanganui/
For weather forecasting information please see www.metservice.co.nz
For road closures, delays, and warnings please see https://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/manawatu-whanganui/