Media release #1: Red heavy rain warning issued for Coastal Otago

Emergency Management Otago (EMO) are keeping a close eye on the incoming weather that is due to effect parts of the region over the next few days.

Metservice have issued a Red Severe Weather Warning for North Otago, Dunedin and coastal Clutha from 11am this morning until 9:00pm Friday. We expect 120 to 150 mm of rain with the heaviest falls about the eastern hills.

Group Manager for EMO, Matt Alley said” Our team along with the Otago Regional Council and local Councils are closely monitoring this weather event and are ready to respond should there be impacts across our communities”.

It is a timely reminder for people to ensure their household plan, emergency supplies and getaway kits are prepared and Mr Alley advises residents to keep away from low lying flood prone areas, not to drive through any flood water, act quickly to self-evacuate if you see rising water and be ready for power and communications outages.

We encourage people to keep up date with weather forecast and road conditions.

ORC’s General Manager Science and Resilience Tom Dyer says ORC flood response crews responsible for flood control areas including the Leith Valley, Taieri/Silverstream and the Clutha schemes area have been preparing for the weather event. They have extra contractors on standby and have opened coastal river mouths as a precaution. Pumps on these schemes are also activated.

 “MetService have told us that their predictions mean Dunedin Coastal area is currently the area of most concern, and our staff will be keeping a very close eye on rivers, streams, and associated flood schemes, in this area.

“We expect all rivers across coastal and southern otago to rise throughout the evening. Key rivers we are focused on at this stage include the Taieri River, the Silverstream, Leith stream, the Pomahaka  and Tokomairiro rivers.

People needing information about river, stream and water flows can go to the ORC environmental data portal.