Flooding

The 1980 Taieri Plain flood is considered one of the most devastating to hit the area and has shaped the level of flood protection there since.

The cost of last week's flooding in Otago is expected to be millions of dollars, but the region's infrastructure seems to have escaped major structural damage.

Most roads in the Clutha district were open again yesterday, but Clutha District Council staff said it could be months before the cost of the damage caused by the flooding was known.

"It came quickly and left just as fast," Waitaki Civil Defence spokesman Scott Ridley said yesterday, as floodwaters disappeared across the district.

About 830 consumers on three North Otago rural water schemes remain without water because of flooding caused by torrential rain last week.

Taieri dairy farmers affected by flooding could each face costs of up $60,000 for alternative winter grazing.

Saving the goldfish was a priority for Kristine Hooper on the night Henley flooded, but she said coming home yesterday and seeing her recently renovated 150-year-old cottage surrounded by floodwater was cause for greater anxiety.

Central American authorities say at least 83 people have been killed in flooding and landslides associated with the region's first tropical storm of the year.

The total clean-up cost for flood-stricken Otago will not be known for "days if not weeks" but is likely to be in the millions.