Emergency lifted

Flood 16 October 2013 Wanganui Chronicle Photograph by Stuart Munro

The state of emergency in Wanganui was lifted this afternoon and now focus turns on repairing stopbanks damaged by floodwaters from the Whanganui River.

The declaration was made on Tuesday afternoon and before nightfall about 120 residents living along Anzac Pde in Wanganui East were evacuated.

And then in the early hours of yesterday police and Red Cross staff were door-knocking again, this time upstream of the Dublin St Bridge when floodwater breached stopbanks near Boydfield St.

In all a total of 139 locals were affected. Twenty-five of them were housed by Civil Defence emergency services with the others finding temporary homes elsewhere.

Cordons that had been in place from Tuesday night were lifted late this afternoon and residents allowed to return to their homes.

But as the flood receded Wanganui District Council and Horizons Regional Council engineers focussed their attention on stopbanks battered by the floodwaters.

The floodwater peaked at the 8.2m mark on the town bridge and it stayed at that level for a long period.

"As the river drops it puts pressure on those very wet stopbanks. We can see water oozing and bubbling at some points so when the river water is moving on the outgoing tide, and at speed, there's a risk those stopbanks could disintegrate,'' Mr Ross said.