Houses and streets flooded in Canterbury Peel forest town. Video / Supplied
In the space of 45 minutes, a Canterbury town went from sunshine to a “frightening” flash flood, wiping out crops and causing widespread damage to town infrastructure.
Residents of Peel Forest, 60km north of Timaru, measured 90mm of rainfall within one hour on Sunday evening.
One resident said the surface flooding was so bad you could “jet boat down the road”, as waters reached as high as local residents’ thighs.
Robyn Carr said her family had enjoyed a lunch party in the sunshine during the afternoon, however while returning home she could see storm clouds on the horizon.
Crop damage is estimated to be around $80,000 according to farmer Mark Tapley. Photo / Mark Tapley.
“It was frightening, it was a sheet of water,” she said.
“You could see the lawns had turned to lakes and water had gotten into some of the cottages, it’s a big insurance thing.”
The town is made up of just less than 100 houses. The local village has a few stores, a church and a preschool. While the town experiences flooding on occasion, Sunday’s downpour was anything but ordinary.
“We’ve been to places like Thailand where you get a torrential downpour, but I’d never seen anything like it - the heavens opened,” said Carr.
One resident said the surface flooding was so bad you could “jet boat down the road”. Photo / Supplied
The region lost power for roughly five hours as the rain abruptly stopped, Fire and Emergency said they responded to reports of three people trapped due to flooding - however, they were only needed for less than two hours.
The damage at this stage is known to be mainly infrastructure - roading, fences and land. However, local farmer Mark Tapley will be counting his losses after his winter crops were wiped out.
Crop damage is estimated to be around $80,000 according to Tapley.
“It happened so fast, the damage to the crops is a hell of an expense as it’s what we feed our stock during the winter,” he said.
“We’ll just have less feed for next winter, we won’t catch up as we’re a good month behind.”
The town is made up of just less than 100 houses. The local village has a few stores, a church and a preschool. Photo / Supplied
According to Tapley, some of the houses were within an inch of being breached with water, others were completely surrounded.
He said the rain was heavily localised, while his property saw 90mm of rainfall another house 10 minutes’ drive away only measured 10mm.
“All the asphalt in the village is displaced on the main, so everybody is out and about cleaning up,” he said.
