An Otago Peninsula resident says she can only wait with her ‘‘fingers crossed’’ to find out if she can return to her Irvine Rd home after a landslip forced emergency services to evacuate nine properties yesterday.
In the wake of the slip at The Cove, the Dunedin City Council is conducting geotechnical inspections of the area and keeping a close eye out for any ground movement on the wider peninsula area or the West Harbour following the recent heavy rain.
The Cove resident, who declined to be named, said she was at work when she was alerted to the slip about 4pm.
When she called to check on her son at home, he said the street was full of Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) appliances and police cars.
She raced home, only to be stopped at a police cordon.
Despite the stressful situation, she managed to keep her composure.
‘‘I was trying to be really calm for his [her son’s] sake, I guess.’’
Two properties next to the slip were evacuated immediately.
Another seven around the slip — including her property — were evacuated soon after.
The area had previously been badly affected by a slip following the 2024 floods.
She believed emergency services crews were being extra cautious after six people died in the Mt Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park slip in January.
‘‘That really stuck out.
‘‘Mt Maunganui came up a couple of times.
‘‘So everyone is just so super cautious because of what happened ... that they are just so erring on the side of caution.’’
Police and Fenz crews assessed nearby homes in Highcliff Rd above the slip as well, she said.
Before the evacuation, her son managed to collect the family dogs and some items to tide them over for the night at a Dunedin motel.
Residents of six properties on the lower side of Irvine Rd were allowed to return to their properties last night.
They would have to wait until today to find out when, or if, they could return.
‘‘We’ve got our fingers crossed until tomorrow, to find out when we can get back,’’ she said.
Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker said it was a ‘‘horrible’’ and ‘‘distressing’’ situation for those affected.
‘‘My heart absolutely goes out to them.
‘‘This is a horrible thing to happen, to leave your home and not know if you’re going to be able to go back.
‘‘It’s an incredibly distressing situation and we just hope that it gets resolved soon.’’
As soon as the heavy rainfall stopped yesterday, her concerns centred on slips, caused by the sodden ground.
‘‘The peninsula is well known for slips, so that was something of huge concern to us all.’’
West Harbour was also prone to slips, and the DCC was prepared to respond if other areas started to show signs of slips.
‘‘The issues will go on for quite a while when we’ve had such an amount of rain.’’
In Oamaru, another three properties were evacuated after a second landslip in as many days.
A Fenz spokeswoman said the slip went into a house in Glen St about 3.45pm yesterday.
The house, and two other properties either side, were evacuated.
Waitaki District Council geotechnical engineers would investigate the slip this morning.
