Te Araroa flooding: ‘It was like a river running through the camp’

Steps were being taken to evacuate the Te Araroa Holiday Park and other nearby residences yesterday morning after floodwaters swept through the campground at around 7am due to heavy rain in the area.

Floodwaters swept through Te Araroa Holiday Park yesterday morning after heavy rain in the area and the situation came close to evacuations.

“It was like a river coming through the camp with water from the nearby creek,” camp proprietor Bill Martin said.

At 7am, Te Araroa volunteer fire brigade and police were called to assist at the scene of the surface flooding.

“Steps were being taken to evacuate people at the motor camp and some other nearby residents at around that time, but then the flash flood that occurred subsided,” Martin said.

As it turned out, evacuations were not needed.

State Highway 35 was under caution at around 7.30am due to surface flooding, which the NZTA said subsided in about half an hour.

There was also debris on the road.

“We were getting it (floodwaters) from the front and the sides,” Martin said.

”We were concerned there might have been a further build-up in water upstream, and we were worried about that making the situation a lot more serious. But as it turned out, the floodwaters went down.

“However, we’ve now got a massive clean-up on our hands.”

Debris and silt covered much of the Te Araroa Holiday Park alongside State Highway 35 after flash flooding nearly caused evacuations yesterday. Camp proprietor Bill Martin said they had a massive clean-up on their hands.

“We’ve had water damage through our cabin block because some of our buildings were flooded and there’s silt all over the campground.”

Martin said it was heartening to see some locals turn up with shovels to give them a hand to clean up if they needed it.