Flood alerts issued

Press, 3 June 1981, Page 1

Flood alerts issued

Emergency services and local authorities have been told to prepare for downpours and possible flooding over much of the South Island within 24 hours. The warning was issued yesterday afternoon by the Christchurch Weather Office to the police who. in turn, alerted civil defence, emergency services, and local authorities in many parts of the island. Falls of 100 mm or more are expected in North Canterbury, South Canterbury, Wai’taki. Otago, Southland, the West Coast, and Nelson. Already, widespread rain has been reported on the West Coast and through the middle of the South Island, according the Weather Office. It rained heavily in Greymouth on Monday'night, and the Westland Catchment Board issued flood warnings’ to farmers. Farmers were advised to move stock to» higher ground. At 9 p.m. the rain had increased in intensity, driven by a strong northerly wind, but the Catchment Board hadl had no report from its observers in the back country of any big rise in rivers, feeding the Grey. i A few streets in Greymouth had experienced minor flooding, with a danger of increased flooding in the early hours of today, when a spring tide is expected. The Hokitika River was iff high flood yesterday but no street flooding had occurred by late last evening. A slip blocked the main highway, at Mount Bonar, north of Harihari, and the Ministry of Works advised people not to use the road during the night. A slip at Diana Falls between the Gates of Haast and the top of the Haast Pass began moving yesterday, but a Ministry of Worksspokesman said last evening that the highway was not blocked. A Weather Office spokesman said the rain was caused by a deep depression, how lying in the centraß Tasman Sea, preceded by a moist northerly to northwesterly airflow. The depression, with its associated fronts, was expected to move fully on to the lower half of the South Island within 24 hours.