It appeared Mosgiel, which woke to widespread surface flooding and road closures, bore the brunt of the storm that battered wider Dunedin on Sunday and into yesterday morning, while residents in other parts of the city navigated further flooding and landslips.
Residents in South Dunedin, a suburb vulnerable to flooding, were on high-alert on Sunday night, but fears of disruptive flooding in the area did not eventuate.
Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker yesterday said preparation had been vital and thanked council staff, contractors and community members for their work in the past 48 hours.
‘‘The community is amazing, quite frankly.
‘‘All of the help that people gave to each other and the information that they fed in was really, really helpful.
‘‘When you’re trying to juggle a large city like Dunedin and figure out where your key pressure points are, people are fabulous.’’
MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris said between 12.01am Sunday and 3pm yesterday, 113mm of rain was recorded in Dunedin (Octagon), 118.3mm at Dunedin Airport and 105.4mm in Oamaru.
This was ‘‘a lot of rain given their July average rainfall is around 40mm’’.
Dunedin City Council’s emergency operations centre was active for about 24 hours to 3.30pm yesterday.
Council incident controller Chris Henderson said efforts to clear drains and debris, assess any damage or safety issues and carry out repairs and maintenance would continue.
‘‘Rivers and streams have peaked, and water levels are subsiding, but there is standing water in places and some debris along roads, footpaths and in public spaces.’’
He asked for the public’s patience as work continued and said they should contact the council with specific concerns.
Mr Henderson also urged swimmers, surfers and shellfish gatherers to stay out of the water for 72 hours due to the risk of contamination from wet weather overflows.
Ms Barker was stationed in Dunedin’s civil defence bunker and said it had run like a ‘‘well-oiled machine’’.
‘‘I think the real key was around the preparation, which started early [Sunday] morning.
‘‘All the streets had been cleared and the mud tanks checked etc, so it was good to get some warning and good to get everyone out and getting ready.
‘‘Just from my observations, the team worked incredibly hard.’’
The council had kept a close eye on South Dunedin.
Ms Barker said recent short-term improvement works in the area — such as wet weather overflow modifications — had helped mitigate the effect of heavy rain.
Flood protection barriers were also installed in Surrey St, near the Hillside Rd intersection, and a handful of properties in the area were lined with sandbags.
Surrey Street Flood Action Group convener Lynne Newell said it had been a sleepless night, but she was pleased the area had not flooded, either with stormwater or wastewater overflows.
‘‘There was no flooding, and it seemed really good, except that you had the stress the whole time.’’
The heavy rain came in intervals and she believed this allowed the pipes to clear between showers, avoiding overflows.
Most roads across Dunedin closed by floodwaters reopened last night, including Three Mile Hill Rd and State Highway 88 at Sawyers Bay.
A road in Broad Bay and another in St Leonards remained closed following slips.
