Looters being guarded against in flood-hit Rangitikei town

1.00pm

Civil defence staff were today guarding the entrances to the flood-ravaged Rangitikei town of Scott's Ferry after reports of looting.

The town, 19km southwest of Bulls, was one of the worst affected by the floods that have devastated the Rangitikei district and much of the lower North Island in the past week.

Rangitikei civil defence controller Leigh Halstead said that staff would today begin escorting evacuated residents back to their homes, many of which had about 30cm of mud covering their floors.

He said residents were being escorted in because staff wished to control who entered the town after at least one instance of looting and another group of looters was stopped trying to enter the area on Thursday night.

"The road is now open, but if we started letting people go down there willy nilly then we would have no control," he told National Radio.

"We've got the entrance ways guarded and what we are doing is arranging residents to go in there today. People's dreams have just been devastated."

Manawatu District Council civil defence staff were today monitoring the weather as council staff moved to formally assess the damage wreaked by the most devastating flooding in the region in 100 years.

A rural liaison committee established this week began a telephone survey to gauge people's present welfare. It would look at people's access to food, drinking water and medical requirements as well as attempting to quantify impacts on farm access, stock losses, crop losses, building damage, fencing and water reticulation, the council said in a statement.

As water receded yesterday in the first complete day without rain in a week for parts of the lower North Island, Horizons Regional Council staff began repairing stopbanks where they had been breached by floodwaters.

Late yesterday two temporary repairs to breaches in the Oroua River stopbanks were completed, the council -- which takes in Manawatu, Rangitikei and Wanganui districts -- said in a statement.

Four tractor pumps were standing by ready to begin pumping ponded water as soon as access allowed around the region, but a pump draining the Moutoa floodway had broken down and needed repairs.

Milk was now being processed at Pahiatua, in Wairarapa, easing the situation for farmers who were having to dump milk.

Preliminary results from Environmental Science and Research in Wellington indicated there was no risk at present from chemicals stored at the Shannon fellmongery but the site remained off limits and would continue to be monitored.

- NZPA