Southland camp looks to reopen after severe flooding at New Year

A tractor driver attempts to pull out a debris-covered fence near Pyramid Bridge after floods swept through the Southland town of Waikaia at the weekend. Photo / Supplied

Despite losing three-quarters of campers because of severe flooding, the beer is still in the fridge for when they return this weekend, a Waikaia Camp Ground caretaker says.

The Southland town of Waikaia is slowly recovering after being hit hard by flooding at the weekend, as rain closed roads and forced hundreds of campers to leave the area.

It was New Year's Day when Graeme Coats started to worry about the rising water levels.

By Saturday, the majority of those at the Waikaia Camp Ground had left to avoid getting stranded.

"It's been pretty severe really," he said.

"We drove up towards Piano Flat and could just see the flooding coming down, so we gave campers a bit of a warning and they took advantage of that."

During the holiday season, the campground would attract hundreds of people.

The majority of those, many of whom were fishermen and golfers, left their caravans there for the seven-month-long season.

MetService reported 31.8mm of water on Saturday and a further 34.8mm on Sunday, up from 7.8mm on New Year's Day.

Southland District Council put a notice out to warn travellers and encourage people to avoid passing through the area over the weekend.

Piano Flat and Pyramid Waiparu roads were also closed after the Waikaia River overflowed.

Yesterday, things were starting to look up.

Coats said Piano Flat had about half a metre of water and the camp ground had widespread surface flooding, but the rain had stopped.

A "positive" for the town was looking forward to welcoming campers back next weekend when the weather had cleared.

"We've got plenty of bookings."

"The Speight's and DB are still in the fridge for when they get here."

An update from Emergency Management Southland said yesterday that the Waikaia headwater levels were coming down quickly and were not expected to cause issues down rivers.

"This water is now flowing down into the Mataura River and our latest forecast is for around 1300 cumecs of flow through Gore and Mataura this afternoon.

"This is well within the flood protection and for comparison, last February, the flow reached 2400 cumecs."

The Pyramid Bridge would remain closed until further notice.

It was not yet clear how much the flooding damage would cost to repair.

However, there was no doubt campgrounds had taken a significant financial hit, Coats said.