Mud dreams are washing away in Mid-Canterbury.
A near-new house made of mud bricks is unlikely to withstand the onslaught of floodwaters from the swollen Selwyn River.
The one-year-old home in Coes Ford, 30km southwest of Christchurch, was described by neighbour Paddy Dillon as "magnificent."
However, Mr Dillon said the person who built the house had told him the cobb bricks would not survive the volume of water and it might have to be demolished. Mr Dillon said that inside the house the water came up to his calves; outside it was waist deep. Water was bubbling inside the front door.
The owner, Mark Hubber, is in France and the person looking after the house cannot contact him.
The Selwyn reached a 50-year high at the weekend after heavy rain in the South Island. Selwyn Huts, at the mouth of the river, was evacuated on Saturday night.
A stopbank was breached early on Saturday but did not threaten homes although the river peaked at 8.3m about 1 am yesterday.
Elsewhere in Canterbury, residents began mopping up after the rain that damaged rail lines and paralysed traffic.
"Things are all falling away, the water that's out on the plains area is slowly getting back into the river systems," said Environment Canterbury spokesman Bob Reid.
The storm also brought heavy snow to the South Island, including a record 1.8m to Mt Hutt.
All South Island roads had reopened by yesterday afternoon, although several were down to single lanes.
Rail services between Christchurch and Invercargill are likely to be disrupted for most of this week after the bridge across Opihi River, near Temuka, lost a pier. Tranz Rail spokesman Fred Cockram said the Opihi River was normally just a small stream.
Heavy repair equipment was being moved to the area and engineers were assessing the problem, but could not make a final report until the river dropped.
Rail services between Christchurch and Picton resumed yesterday morning after a slip closed the line near Kaikoura. The line to the West Coast returned to normal yesterday afternoon.
Timaru civil defence manager Mark Bang said South Canterbury was returning to normal after being badly affected by floods.
Many roads in the region were closed on Saturday. Temuka was cut off and homes were evacuated.
The 14 people helped from their properties and a Salvation Army centre because of surface flooding returned yesterday morning and roads were being gradually reopened, Mr Bang said.
"We've had teams all day cleaning out properties and pumping out basements and disinfecting and that sort of mucky business."
This would continue today but most people could now use the sewers and did not have too much effluent around their homes, Mr Bang said.
There was also a lot of road damage needing repair.
Meanwhile, the Tim Finn, Bic Runga and Dave Dobbyn concert scheduled for Christchurch last night was postponed until September 9.
Flooding north of Timaru prevented a truck carrying gear from a Dunedin gig getting to Christchurch yesterday morning.
- NZPA
'Magnificent' Mid-Canterbury house may be flood casualty
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.