Marlborough recovers from storm battering

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 3

Marlborough recovers from storm battering

By

RODGER KINGSBURY

in Blenheim -

Marlborough had a weekend of waiting for rivers to drop, floodwaters to recede and coping with fresh stopbank problems after taking a severe battering from torrential rain on Friday night.

Blenheim people were well aware of the rain and swollen rivers in their town but few realised how much worse the situation would have been had it not been for the Taylor River flood detention dam. At the height of the deluge, 200 cubic metres of water a second were carried into the dam, the highest figure since recordings were started in 1961. The chief engineer for the Marlborough Catchment Board, Mr Robin Carr, said that without the banking system provided below the Taylor catchment, Blenheim would have been inundated. As it was the water reached the decking of the rail bridge into Blenheim and filled the Opawa River floodway from side to side. The Taylor River spilled across Nelson Street as far as the Catchment Board yard. Out of town a 200 m breach occurred in the Omaka River stopbanking between Hawkesbury Road bridge and State highway 6. Mr Carr said that this was a serious problem and caused a lot of floodwater to come out of the river, cross farmland and enter low areas of Renwick,

particularly below the terrace, in the area of Oudenarde Street, where water entered at least six houses. “The Omaka generally has taken a bit of a hammering. Quite a few areas have been flooded, including grape plantings,” he said. It would be a big job to replace the stopbank, he said. Before a lot of money was spent, a decision would have to be made on the best Way of going about the work. “If we have heavy rain in the Omaka catchment again we have got to be able to warn these people that flooding could happen again. It is a very floodable area and they have been through this before,” he said. Rainfall recorded in the catchment to 10 a.m. on Saturday ranged from 130 mm at the Beneagle recorder to 200 mm at Tin Pot between Meadowbank and Tempello. The first indication of the severity of the flood in Blenheim was at the Al Motor Camp beside the Grove Road bridge across the Opawa River. The occupants of about nine caravans, many of them semi-permanent residents of the site, had to flee to higher

ground about 4 a.m. on Saturday and watch helplessly as the water rose almost to the windows. Most of their possessions were saturated with silt-laden water and many items were swept downstream. Only a few were able 4o tow their vans to higher ground in time. One car was submerged, its position marked only by an improvised float. The campers were given shelter for the night in the camping ground cabins and provided with other necessities and offers of assistance. The last big incident occurred at 4.30 p.m. on Saturday when an abutment to the Opawa River floodgate at Riverlands, near The Sandhills, collapsed through undermining. Floodwater swept around several houses in the immediate area, passing under one and through a garage. At the time of the break-out, Catchment Board staff were trying to strengthen the abutment and had already placed about 70 cubic metres of rock behind it. The board has been improving the floodgate system in recent weeks.

The torrent then passed through a culvert under State highway 1 and under a small rail bridge before fanning out over Riverlands pastureland as far west as Alabama Road.

The police directed that the rail line be closed until the bridge had been checked by engineers for safety. It was found to be sound.

On Friday night the occupants of two houses in Picton, one in Wairau Road and the other in Buller Street, were thankful for sandbags provided by the Catchment Board and pumps operated by the Picton Volunteer Fire Brigade when floodwaters surrounded their homes. The water receded by late evening and by early Saturday morning minor slips between Picton and Blenheim had been

Other slips were dealt with on Queen Charlotte Drive and at Port Underwood. Highway 63 was closed by flooding. Two people had a lucky escape on Friday night when their car plunged into the flooded Starborough Stream at Seddon just before 11 p.m. They swam to safety after their car was swept away.