The Timaru District Council took more than 50 flood-related service calls by 5pm yesterday, sending the Fire Service and local contractors out to help residents.
Sales manager Nathan Kippenberger said he lived just around the corner from one of the worst-affected areas.
"Canada [was] definitely the worst street,'' Mr Kippenberger said.
"This is the worst I've seen since I've been here. There were leaky buildings left, right and centre.''At his workplace in Washdyke, staff took measures to stop water flowing into the property.
"We started doing a bit of sand maintenance,'' he said.
"In our yard it was quite bad.''
Fire Service Senior Station Officer Garry Parker, of Timaru, could not confirm how many calls fire crews had responded to but said there was water inside people's homes and the Timaru Boys' High School gymnasium.
"Boys' high gym had quite a flow of water flowing through the foyer,'' Mr Parker said.
"We managed to use a pump [to extract it].''Police were called by the Fire Service to divert traffic on State Highway 1 south of the city.
"[We] called for police for traffic control and because of the speed people were going through the water,'' he said. ‘‘People don't realise what sort of bow-overs they cause.''
The flooding was some of the worst he had seen.
No injuries directly related to the flooding were reported to the Fire Service, he said.
Council land transport manager Andrew Dickson said it was the most rain the district had received in a long time.
"It's certainly put a strain on our drainage system,'' Mr Dickson said.
"There's always some known problem areas [but] we were reasonably prepared.
"Our contractors are keeping up with it.''
The worst-affected areas were Canada St and Beverley Rd in Timaru as well as Richard Pearse Dr and Alexandra St in Temuka, he said.
There had been no need for Civil Defence but the council was not counting it out if the rain continued.
Mr Dickson had not been notified of any water inside people's homes.
Meanwhile, the heavy rain brought relief to South Canterbury's farming community after a hot, dry summer.
South Canterbury Federated Farmers president Mark Adams said the break in the dry weather was good for soil as well as winter food crops.
"The rain just takes away some of the pressure for farmers. In the middle of summer it's never too late to get rain.''
Showers were forecast for the next few days but today was expected to be fine.
MetService meteorologist Hannah Moes said 51.8mm of rain had fallen between 10am and 9pm yesterday and was still falling but was forecast to subside.
"It's not extreme but it [was] definitely heavy rain.''
- Additional reporting Al Williams of The Courier.
