People in Queenstown Lakes townships and rural areas are warned to watch rising lake and river levels, with some flooding now predicted - particularly for parts of Glenorchy.
MetService has issued a heavy rain warning for the Otago headwaters - between 140mm to 200mm of rain - from 1am until noon on Thursday, in addition to a strong northwest wind warning affecting most of the region.
In a statement tonight, Tom Dyer, the Otago Regional Council's general manager science and resilience, said people could access its environmental data portal for real-time monitoring of rivers and lakes.
"There is a strong potential for high lake levels this week, as further periods of significant heavy rain follow the heavy rainfall experienced in the last few days.
“We’re actively monitoring lakes and rivers in the Queenstown Lakes area from now and throughout the long weekend, and are advising people of the likelihood of flooding in some areas.”
"It’s likely there could be extensive flooding of the northwest part of the township, similar to what occurred in February 2020," Mr Dyer said.
Some flooding was also expected in low-lying Queenstown streets in the vicinity of Lake Wakatipu.
These included low-lying sections of Beach St, Rees St, Marine Parade, Church St and Earl St, where a depth of approximately 300-400mm was likely; low-lying areas of Kingston; low-lying sections of Cornwall St where a depth of approximately 200-300mm was likely, and across the foreshores of Wānaka.
Strong winds
Strong northwest winds were also forecast, and these may cause waves and floating debris to impact the shoreline or water levels. The winds were expected to turn to southwest later, affecting the Clutha district.
Landsliding or debris flows triggered by high rainfall totals or intensities may occur on steep slopes, depending on the intensities, totals and location of rainfall and thunderstorm activity, in particular in the Makarora area (e.g. Pipson Creek, Muddy Creek), and at catchments on the Queenstown-Glenorchy Rd.
Downstream in the Clutha catchment, it was expected the Clutha River flow at Balclutha would remain elevated; but at less than 2000 cumecs for the rest of the week.
There were no concerns about ORC’s flood protection schemes in Alexandra and Balclutha handling the expected flows downstream.
People in the vicinity of the river need to be aware of the possibility for the flow to rapidly increase because of high rainfall in the headwaters, regardless of the local weather.
ORC was closely monitoring the river flows and lake levels and working with Queenstown Lakes District Council and Emergency Management Otago to ensure businesses in low-lying areas were aware and prepared.
- Allied Media
