Urgent flood warning a false alarm

An urgent flood warning was issued in the Wanganui region today, but it was a false alarm.

Rivers in the district have peaked and are now receding, Wanganui Civil Defence said.

The warning went out when contractors clearing debris from the Kauangaroa Bridge disturbed Manawatu-Wanganui Regional Council flood warning sensors.

That triggered an urgent warning message that the Whangaehu River had reached 8.44m which would have concerned farmers in the lower Mangamahu, Ngauri, Okirae and Kauangaroa areas.

Civil Defence said the actual level was 3.17m and dropping. There was no threat of flooding.

Wanganui District Council engineers, consultants and Transit New Zealand engineers met yesterday to discuss the government-funded Bailey bridge to be built over the Mangawhero River to restore access to Mangamahu.

Today soil in the area was being checked and the bridge design is expected to be complete by next Friday.

Planning was continuing to provide a footbridge, and engineers were still discussing options for alternative access to Mangamahu.

Supplies were to be dropped by helicopter to Mangamahu Hall today and Matahiwi Track residents, isolated by slips, were to have food parcels and a Civil Defence radio delivered to them.

In Hunterville a team of engineers was this morning back at the site of a huge landslide.

Experts said it was too early to say if people forced from their homes by the slip would ever be able to return home.

The approximately 500m-long slip first began about 11am yesterday above Stewart St in the northern Manawatu town. By late yesterday afternoon, the mud and dirt was 2m high at the back and sides of one house and four houses had been evacuated.

Civil Defence spent the night at the scene, watching for further slip action as after heavy rain in past weeks, earth at the top of the slip appeared precarious.

GNS Science engineering geologist Chris Massey said more earth was poised to join the landslide.

"There's a series of cracks at the head of the landslide which indicates that it's likely that if there was to be additional rainfall then it is highly likely that the debris will continue to move."

Metservice forecasts up to 90mm of rain could fall in hill country in the lower North Island in an 18-hour period from Friday afternoon through to Saturday morning.

Rangitikei District Council emergency manager Stan Dulieu said affected residents had been evacuated and were staying with relatives.

- NZPA