PHOTO
Waitaki residents are angry at the lack of communication from the council following significant flooding that struck the district overnight.
A state of emergency was declared in Waitaki after the district was hit by heavy rain causing “severe” localised flooding.
Between approximately midnight and 2am, Oamaru received around 37mm of rain in just two hours.
Residents online said there was “zero communication” from the Waitaki District Council until the state of emergency was announced about 4.25am this morning despite severe rain and wind conditions from midnight last night.
North Otago resident Adrian McCauley was up at 2am monitoring the water levels that rose to a “scary” three metres high at a creek nearby his property near Pukeuri, north of Oamaru.
Mr McCauley said he was “angry” at the lack of council communication on where to evacuate.
“Pardon my French but it was f...ing terrifying, I’ve got kids and their safety is my priority, the last thing I want is for them to be in a situation like this.
“We had to evacuate and there was nothing online at that time from the council on where we could go.
"Luckily I have parents here we could go too . . . my parents were terrified by the wild weather and my Mum said they felt so alone and abandoned as there was nothing from the council on what to do or where people might evacuate too,” he said.
Mr McCauley said he was “angry” and had gone to the Network Waitaki Event Centre where a “community-led evacuation centre” had been set up this morning to talk to “someone in charge”.
"I’m angry and I came here to the event centre this morning because I want to ask the council person in charge why they made a decision not to activate this before the very nationally broadcast weather system was already announced, I want to know who that person is and what was their thought process,” he said.
An Emergency Operations Centre was activated this morning at the Network Waitaki Event Centre.
Mr McCauley said he thought it was “bizarre” the council chose a location in the North End of Oamaru, “that often floods” as a place to set up an evacuation centre.
Other residents online questioned why there was “zero comment from the council until the state of emergency was called” when there was a “a very real possibility of flooding”.
Waitaki District Mayor Mel Tavendale told the ODT they were informed by MetService last night there was no expectation of “significant rainfall”.
"We weren’t in a state of emergency then, where we would require outside help, so we were responding as best as we could.
"There were warnings on our council page and a number of the civil defence pages which we encourage people to keep an eye on saying the weather events were coming,” she said.
Mrs Tavendale said she “didn’t believe that any more of those warnings would have changed the outcome”.
"We certainly respond when it comes to the level of importance to the information we receive from MetService,” she said.
"I encourage people to look out for each other, check on their neighbours and don’t travel if you don’t need to, and please don’t go into any floodwaters because we don’t know how swift or how deep they are,” Mrs Tavendale said.
Mrs Tavendale said she “encouraged people to call emergency services if they need help”.
A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said this morning that Oamaru and Mosgiel were the “worst hit areas” by the heavy rain and severe surface flooding with 70 flooding related call outs, vehicle rescues and evacuations.
The Emergency Operations Centre was activated this morning at the Network Waitaki Event Centre.
Community and Stronger Waitaki Lead Ali McIntyre who headed up the evacuation centre said they had three families, a dog, and four foreign nationals who took shelter at the evacuation centre this morning.
Minister for emergency management and recovery minister Mark Mitchell would speak along with Mayor Tavendale, at a media conference at the Oamaru Opera House at 12.30pm today.