Lacking flood signage tabled at council meetings

An aerial view of water from the flooded Tokomairaro River spreading over the plains south of Milton during flooding on July 22. Photo / Samuel White

Concerns about delays erecting flood warning signs during last month's flooding in the Clutha district and a lack of signs highlight two things that could be done better in the future, a report to local community boards says.

The same reports from Clutha District Council staff on the response to the July 21 and 22 flooding have been sent to the West Otago and Lawrence-Tuapeka Community Boards, which meet tomorrow.

Council regulatory services group manager David Campbell told the Otago Daily Times the reports were localised and relevant to the specific community boards' areas.

Contractors were required to have a certain stock of flooding signs but were looking at alternatives for use in the future, such as tape across the roads, he said.

''They did what they could with the resources available.''

The council was also aware of people who ignored or moved signs and accessed roads regardless.

The West Otago report also said Koi Flat Rd, Ardmore Rd and Wooded Hill Rd were inspected on the night of July 21 and deemed passable, but were later flooded.

''In hindsight'', the roads should have been closed, as the water was still rising.

However, it should have been clear to drivers not to try to get through, he said.

''It's a bit of common sense with the rural roads - where people can see they're inundated, they should probably try not to get through,'' Mr Campbell said.

Sometimes, contractors could not reach certain locations to place signs.

One of the areas where the council wanted to improve was resourcing for sandbags across the district.

It was looking at a consistent approach across the region in terms of who was providing the sandbags and ensuring better links and communication to the different communities, Mr Campbell said.

Lawrence, in particular, had ''self-managed'' but the council could have helped more if there had been more contact with locals.

The council had a ''pre-warning'' of a potential flooding incident so was prepared for it.

''We mobilised pretty well and got teams in place and members of the community rallied as well.''

He was unsure how much the recovery would cost, but estimated it could be in the ''several hundreds of thousands'' of dollars.