Heavy rain in Otago in the past two days has resulted in several of the hydro-electric dams spilling excess water from holding lakes, but Environment Canterbury last night had no concerns flood protection stopbanks would not cope.
In the Upper Waitaki lakes and rivers, about 400mm of rain at Mt Cook in 36 hours and saturated catchment areas resulted in spills from Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki and Ohau down the Tekapo, Pukaki and Ohau Rivers.
The Ahuriri River peaked at just over 400cumecs at midday yesterday, although trampers, campers and holidaymakers near the river should remain wary, Environment Canterbury Timaru flood controller Graham Sullivan said.
Lakes Benmore, Aviemore and Waitaki were expected to reach capacity last night.
About 850cumecs of water was discharged at Benmore and Aviemore dams yesterday.
The Waitaki dam discharged about 650cumecs yesterday afternoon, but the discharge was expected to increase to between 1200cumecs and 1400cumecs by midnight last night.
Lower Waitaki River flows were expected to increase given the saturated conditions in the catchment.
Contact Energy generation manager Graham Quinn said the Clutha River's peak flow of about 1380cumecs was expected to reach the Clyde dam last night.
Water would be spilled at Clyde and Roxburgh because there was too much to put through the generators, he said.
There were no plans to spill from the Hawea dam because there was still at least 1.5m storage capacity in the lake and increasing the flow in the Hawea River would only add to the flood at the Clutha and Cardrona confluence.
