Fine spell allows flood damage to be assessed in Manawatu

11.45am

A brief spell of fine weather today has given emergency staff a chance to assess the extent of flood damage in the Manawatu region, after a wild night of more rain, wind and thunderstorms.

In a statement today, Horizons Regional Council said less rain than expected had fallen overnight, and most had been on the eastern side of the region, which had not been as badly affected by the bad weather of the past week.

Power was out in some places and the Horowhenua Hospital's generator failed, leaving the hospital in darkness for some time.

Rivers were contained in their channels, but the Manawatu was rising at Moutua and flowing back into ponding areas, slowing down the removal of water by a day or so.

The Rangitikei had reached 5m but was not likely to cause additional damage.

Initial results from water samples taken from a fellmongery at Shannon yesterday suggested no cause for concern about large amounts of chemicals, including alkali and sulphuric acid, under water, Horizons said.

Samples had been sent to the Institute of Environmental Science and Research in Wellington for further testing, with results expected to be available later today.

All Feilding evacuees had returned home or were in motels, resthomes or temporary accommodation today, the council said, while about 12 Kopane evacuees were billeted and food parcels had been sent to them.

In Wanganui, most rural roads were closed and almost all roads were affected by flooding or damage. State Highway 4 at Parapara, south of Raetihi, could be closed by slips for several weeks.

In Palmerston North, the Henderson's Line Bridge was unsafe and would be closed for two or three weeks.

The mayors of the Manawatu-Wanganui region had appointed recovery managers to begin essential planning work to get the region back on its feet, Horizons said.

Mark Harrison from Horizons had been appointed group recovery manager, with the job of coordinating recovery activities throughout the region.

The priority in the next few days would be to get recovery managers from the districts in the region together, and identify how to tackle the issues that needed to be worked on, Mr Harrison said.

Issues included essential services such as roading, welfare, rural and economic matters.

"We are in the early days of getting things started, as the current weather patterns mean that a lot of effort is still focused on responding to the events in front of us. However it is important that we are ready to get things back to normal as soon as possible," he said.

The region's mayors had yet to discuss what format of managing relief funding would work best.

District recovery managers are Greg Boyle in Horowhenua, Rod Titcombe in Manawatu, Peter Duncan in Rangitikei and Ian McGowan in Wanganui.

Meanwhile, a rock stuck in a 900mm culvert under State Highway 1 at Paekakariki, 42km northeast of central Wellington, is thwarting efforts to reopen the road.

Both highway routes into Wellington were closed overnight during a burst of stormy weather.

SH1 was closed after an intense rain storm about 9pm caused flash flooding. A temporary alternative route was later opened through the township but it had been hoped to have the highway reopened by 9am.

About 11am today Transit New Zealand road safety engineer Stanley Chesterfield said highway traffic was still being diverted through Paekakariki.

The problem was being caused by a rock stuck about halfway along the pipe.

"It's a bit of a tight fit and very hard to get out," he said.

"The stormwater that would like to go through the culvert is flowing across the highway."

All sorts of ways of moving the rock had been tried, including pushing high pressure water at it, Mr Chesterfield said.

It was hard to say when the highway could be reopened.

"If we can break the rock it will all come sweet in 10 minutes flat, but we have got a problem here."

The other main route into Wellington -- SH2 over the Rimutaka Range from Wairarapa to the Hutt Valley -- had reopened just before 9am.

It closed around 10pm last night after stormy weather brought 14 slips down on it.

Meanwhile, Horizons Regional Council confirmed it would open the Moutoa Floodgates in Opiki between 1 and 2pm today, to help relieve floodwater in the Lower Manawatu River.

"Floodway lease holders are being telephoned this morning and advised of the gate opening.

"Floodwater will extend to the areas of land that were affected earlier in the week by stopbank breaches at Kara Creek, Koputoroa and Whirikino, but will not extend over any new areas of land", Horizons incident controller Ged Shirley said.

The Lower Manawatu River at State Highway 1 was expected to peak around 8pm.

The floodgates were expected to be open for 12 to 18 hours, the council said.

- NZPA