Editorial: Otago floods a sign of things to come

OPINION

It’s been a scary and exhausting few days for Otago residents, with flooding destroying homes and cutting off entire areas. Dunedin recorded its wettest day in a century and water cut road access to the city of about 115,000 people.

According to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), by 9am on Friday a Dunedin weather station had been hit by its “wettest day in over a century”, with 130.8mm of rain recorded in 24 hours. The extreme downpours in Dunedin alone forced more than 80 residents to evacuate.

Some areas copped 74 days’ worth of rain in 40 hours, causing the city to be cut off in every direction as floodwaters forced the closure of four state highways.

South Dunedin residents on Forbury Road rushing to sandbag a house amid rising floodwaters. Photo / George Heard

Across Dunedin, backyards turned into ponds and roads were rendered submerged as surface flooding worsened throughout the day. Locals were warned to treat floodwaters as if they were contaminated.

Emergency management crews worked “around the clock” to clear roads and slips which had impacted the water main supplies around south Dunedin. Locals were urged to conserve as much water as possible - limiting shower usage or flushing the toilet.

Nine properties in Dunedin have been “red-stickered” after extensive damages from slips. More are possible as further assessments are made.

There was one saving grace, and its importance cannot be understated: accurate weather forecasts allowed authorities to warn residents to prepare for the incoming flood. In the hours before the water arrived, the strength and compassion of locals was on full display in the district, with people checking in on their elderly neighbours to see if they were prepared and many driving around town distributing sandbags to residents who couldn’t go to get their own. People rushed to move livestock to higher ground, made sure their pets were safe, and checked in on people around them.

Of course, there was only so much anyone could get ready for, but that preparation likely saved lives. That is a lesson to take from what Otago has just experienced - a lesson that, thanks to climate change, we are likely to be reminded of more and more often in the future.

The damage caused by the Dunedin floods includes this massive slip, which almost buried a house. Photo / George Heard

These extreme weather events will only become more frequent, not just in Aotearoa but across the world, and they are a stark reminder we must take climate change seriously and focus on meeting the targets we’ve set in that area.

At Friday morning’s press conference, Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich paid tribute to the resilience of locals - helping themselves and others.

“I was extremely proud of our community,” Radich said.

“Everyone was calm and demonstrated a community coming together.”

Sandbags being handed out ahead of the weather event. Photo / Ben Tomsett

In emergency situations such as major weather event,s the focus of those going through it has to be on the “now”. But the before and after are just as important.

Every single one of these “red” weather alerts also has a major stress-related toll on the people affected by them. The impact goes beyond the clean-up, which Otago will have to deal with in the coming days and months.

Dunedin, and the wider Otago area, will now enter recovery mode and start the long - and sometimes complex - process of cleaning up after a flood. Thousands are eligible for a payment from Civil Defence. It’s likely to take a while and it’s not what anyone wants to deal with in the lead-up to summer and Christmas. But everyone is okay - and that’s worth celebrating.

One Dunedin resident told the Herald “watching a force of nature just tear through things ... it’s surreal”. The surreal is becoming more and more real - Dunedin showed us the power of being prepared for it.