Regional council staff stand by for rough weather

Plenty of rain is predicted for Whanganui on Saturday. Photo file / Stuart Munro

Horizons Regional Council emergency and river management staff are monitoring river levels across the region following rain in most catchments.

Horizons river management group manager Ramon Strong says staff will continue to keep watch over the long weekend and are on standby to respond if required.

"While more rain is forecasted for the region, it is not at warning levels and at this stage we don't anticipate any issues.

"Our staff have been out inspecting flood assets today and will be ready to operate any of these if needed."

Users of Horizons' website's environmental data function may have noticed a slight lag in updates on Friday. Horizons is aware of this issue and expects it to be resolved before Saturday.

There is also a MetService wave warning for the Horizons Region. For the west coast from Waitotara to Otaki westerly waves are expected to reach 4m overnight tonight, then ease to 3m on Saturday afternoon.

Members of the public are advised to take care while driving and check the AA's website, http://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/traffic/regions/8 for information on road conditions.

Up-to-date information on river heights and rainfall is available via Horizons 24 hour toll-free Waterline 0508 4 FLOOD or via our website envirodata.horizons.govt.nz

Updates will also be posted to the Manawatu-Wanganui Civil Defence page: https://www.facebook.com/civildefencemanawatuwanganui/

For weather forecasting information please see www.metservice.co.nz