A state of emergency was declared in Dunedin, Oamaru, and across Otago as heavy rain caused flooding, slips, rivers to breach their banks, evacuations and numerous road closures.
Oamaru and Timaru, where a state of emergency was also declared, bore the brunt of the storm, but it continued to cause chaos as it moved south reaching Dunedin, Central Otago and the Clutha District.
Late last night a rising Taieri River resulted in Civil Defence advising residents in Henley township, the upper Taieri ponding area and Gordon Rd spillway area to self-evacuate. This affected about 50 households.
Dunedin Civil Defence Controller Sue Bidrose said at an 11pm briefing a number of areas on the Taieri were being evacuated last night.
"The information at this stage suggests this will be one of the biggest floods on record in the Taieri."
As of about 11pm the Taieri River was flowing at 1200 cumecs.
The flood gates would be opened in the river’s upper ponding area as soon as livestock had been evacuated. People who had nowhere to go were being placed in hotels and motels in the Mosgiel area.
Dunedin city had not been hit as hard as expected and there had been "very few" reports of problems in South Dunedin.
It is expected to stay busy overnight as MetService expected it to continue raining. Otago Regional Council’s flood managers were closely monitoring the Silver Stream, which had begun to overtop the spillway at Gordon Rd and flood rural land outside Mosgiel.
Acting Senior Sergeant Sam Ramsay asked people to stay indoors and keep off the roads amid widespread flooding across the region.
"Anyone driving in these conditions is putting themselves at risk," he said.
SH1 was blocked from Milton to near Balclutha due to severe flooding and slips.
SH1 was also blocked north of Waikouaiti and flights to and from Dunedin Airport were cancelled.
This meant the Highlanders were forced to travel to Christchurch this morning.
Numerous other roads across the region were also closed, including SH85, SH87, SH8, and others were affected by surface flooding.
Due to heavy rain infiltrating the wastewater system, manhole covers were forced up in Surrey St, South Dunedin, and on North Rd in Northeast Valley.
Mayor Dave Cull warned people to stay away from the contaminated water. A police spokeswoman said there was flooding in numerous other areas in Dunedin and surrounding areas and a significant slip took down a power pole on Saint Leonards Dr.
Emergency services had also been called to flooded houses in Outram.
Waitaki District Council mayor Gary Kircher announced a state of emergency just after 8pm, saying the district had reached the stage where it urgently needed outside help.
The army was brought in to help as floodwaters made many roads impassible.
A gravely ill child was at the centre of a mercy dash requiring soldiers to take the youngster by Unimog from Oamaru Hospital to the intensive care unit at Dunedin Hospital last night. Flooding had blocked all roads south of the town and there was no way to get through.
Members of the Oamaru Volunteer Fire Brigade evacuated an Itchen St, Oamaru, property late last night after a retaining wall slipped and struck the house after a day of record-setting rain.
A brigade spokesman said police were sent to tell residents on top of the bank behind the property of the development.
An ambulance was left stranded in a field near Enfield after it became stuck in floodwaters. Emergency services had attempted to rescue a man who had climbed on to the roof of his vehicle to escape rising waters about 5.20pm.
Sergeant Tony Woodbridge, of Oamaru, said locals arranged for a nearby farmer to use his tractor to rescue the man about 5.40pm.
Otago Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group regional manager Chris Hawker said the storm had hit more parts of Otago than expected.
This meant parts of Central Otago and Clutha had been hit by the storm and there had been evacuations in Ida Valley, Lawrence and Milton.
One of the main concerns last night was the lack of road access across the region.
"In most instances we are cut off from the main highways both north, south and east and west," Mr Hawker said.
There had been instances of ambulances which had to return to Dunstan Hospital after failing to make it through the Manuka Gorge to Dunedin.
Dunedin City Council opened information centres in South Dunedin and Mosgiel as places where people could go for more information and which could be used as welfare centres if the need developed.
High winds forced the closure of one Southern Lakes ski area yesterday morning, the cancellation of night skiing at another and impacted flights to and from Queenstown.
Hundreds of passengers were left stranded in the resort after Air New Zealand had to cancel 24 services by 4pm yesterday.
The national carrier has no seats on flights to Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch until Monday.
By late yesterday afternoon just five of the 25 flights scheduled to land at Queenstown Airport had done so, while six of the 25 departing flights had taken off.
The Remarkables ski area closed about 10.30am yesterday due to "exceptionally strong winds".
While Coronet Peak remained open, the ski area cancelled scheduled Friday night skiing due to forecast low visibility and strong winds.
Ski area manager Nigel Kerr said the ski area closed the Greengates Express chairlift just after 2pm, while the Coronet Express chairlift remained on hold.
Canterbury
In Canterbury, two men can consider themselves "lucky" after they were forced to abandon their vehicle and climb a tree.
A police spokesman said the pair tried to ford Hawkins River near Darfield when they got into trouble.
Their vehicle was swept away, but the pair managed to get out and climb a tree.
As at 11.30pm, police, with help from the fire service, had rescued one of the occupants and were in the process of rescuing the other.
It was a close call and the pair were "very lucky" they came across a tree.
