Marton School principal Brya Dixon says staff have cleaned up the school so it can reopen on Tuesday. Photo / Jimmy Ellingham, RNZ
By Jimmy Ellingham of RNZ
A central North Island primary school shut its doors on Monday while it cleaned up after a weekend deluge brought floods to the Rangitīkei District.
Marton School’s 182 pupils had the day off as staff worked to clear out two flood-damaged classrooms and set up a temporary learning space.
The school was one of several properties in the town on Sunday damaged by the swollen Tutaenui Stream.
Principal Brya Dixon said it was not a new experience.
“This is the third time our school has been flooded in the last 20 years - 2004, 2015 and now this time.
“We’ve got two classrooms that have got water through them, so we’re having to relocate those classrooms, and clean up the grounds, which have got silt from all the water that’s gone through.”
One of the classrooms had water sitting in it on Sunday, while the cloak bay, toilet and office area of the two-room block were also damaged.
In Marton, the water has receded but on Sunday it rose quickly, before peaking in the afternoon and draining away.
“The water was flowing quite fast,” Dixon said.
“It just managed to get underneath the doors.”
A temporary learning space was being created for the affected classes in the school library, while the library itself was moving elsewhere.
The damaged classrooms’ carpets were due to be lifted on Monday, while the grounds would be water blasted before pupils returned, she said.
On lower High St Kathryn Collins was assessing the damage at a property she used to own next to the stream.
She has since sold it to her son, Jason Walker, and her daughter, Danielle Walker, now lived there.
“I came home to sort out insurance claims because we lost a lot of stuff in the shed, but that’s fine. It’s better than it being in the house. I’d rather it be in the shed any day. The house is a huge job.”
Water lapped at the front door but did not come inside.
It was at least knee-deep in the backyard, as a mark on the fence illustrated.
“It was like a big muddy swimming pool,” Collins said of the yard. “It was very strong, very swift.”
She pointed to where the water had flattened areas of grass.
Collins said the property also flooded in 2004 and 2015, when water did come inside. On each occasion, it took 14 or 15 weeks before the house was habitable again.
This weekend’s flood came out of the blue for her daughter.
“We were talking the night before. I said, ‘Do you think it will flood?’ She said, ‘I’m not worried.’
“It’s lucky she woke at 5.30 in the morning and realised there was already water in here.
“She got her car and motorbike out and put [her dog] upstairs, and just started lifting stuff from the shed.
“[The water] was already in the shed at 5.30 in the morning.”
Rangitīkei Mayor Andy Watson said the district was in clean-up mode, as council workers checked slips and closed roads, and looked to clear blocked culverts ahead of any further rain.
The Tutaenui Stream was prone to rising quickly, he said.
“A lot of the mitigations are already in place. We have a number of retention dams to the north of Marton. They were put in some time ago by Horizons [Regional Council].
“There’s been a big amount of work done there.
“There’s very little else, from what I gather, that can be done. It’s really, probably, a case of living with it.”
Watson expected the district council would get a report from Horizons about where the stream breached its banks.
It could then assess if any work was needed.
- RNZ
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