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The Kaikōura District Council says floodwaters are receding across the district and building inspections are being carried out following severe weather.
Heavy rainfall has led to washed-out bridges and to evacuations in the area, where a state of emergency has been in place since the Kowhai River breached its banks on Tuesday.
A rare red heavy rain warning by MetService for Marlborough and Canterbury between Ward and Hanmer and southeast of the Awatere Valley, including the Kaikoura ranges, has since been lifted and replaced with a heavy rain watch through until 6pm on Thursday.
The council this morning said people who chose to leave their homes, and weren't subject to an official evacuation request, could return if their property had not been damaged.
Part of SH1 remains closed
A section of SH1 from Kaikōura to Ward, in Marlborough, was open again at 5pm today but would not be in its usual condition, the New Zealand Transport Agency/Waka Kotahi (NZTA) advised.
People will need to travel with extra care, and give themselves plenty of time, as some sections will be down to a single lane and subject to traffic management.
However, a section of the highway south from Kaikōura to Waipara in Canterbury would likely remain closed for at least a couple more days because of damage to the road.
“Our teams have worked hard to get this Kaikōura to Ward section of SH1 to a state where we can reopen after floodwaters have receded,” NZTA maintenance and operations area manager Mark Pinner said this afternoon.
“We are very conscious that we will still have a closure from Kaikōura to Waipara, in Canterbury, carrying into a long holiday weekend and during the school holidays. However, we have to put people's safety first.
"The flooding has caused serious damage to the highway south of Kaikōura, including significant chunks of the road washed away in places by the high river levels. This presents serious risks to anyone using that section of highway.”
Following the closure of SH1 overnight from Waipara to Ward, roading crews have today been out assessing the road, and also clearing rocks and debris.
With Inland Route 70/Inland Kaikōura Road also closed, preventing access to Kaikōura from the west, the available detour has been via State Highways 7, 65, 6 and 63, which remains available for those travelling between Christchurch and the top of the South Island.
“We’ll be doing our best to complete the necessary repairs on SH1 south of Kaikōura as quickly as possible so we can reopen that section of SH1 also,” Mr Pinner said.
“The timing will depend on whether we have more bad weather coming through. Tomorrow we will have a better sense of how long it will take, and we will be able to share that with people. We appreciate peoples’ patience and understanding as we recover from what has been a significant weather event.”
The current weather event continues to affect the wider South Island, with the following closures in place:
- State Highway 8 from Fairlie to Lake Tekapo, Mackenzie Basin - snow and ice
- State Highway 87 from Kyeburn to Middlemarch, Otago - snow
- State Highway 85 from Kyeburn to Palmerston, Otago - snow
People were encouraged to continue to travel with extra care over the next few days, especially on inland roads where ice and snow may continue to an issue.
Property write-offs 'highly possible'
Kaikōura's mayor says it could be a couple of days before some evacuees can return to their homes following significant flooding in the district.
Craig Mackle told RNZ's Midday Report Kaikōura was cut off with no safe way in or out. Building assessments were being carried out on properties that had been flooded.
He could not confirm the number of damaged properties at this stage, but suspected some homes had been written off because of how severe the floodwaters were.
"It's highly possible. There was some quite high waters in some of them, others were only just in. That detail hasn't come back yet, people are out there now."
Mackle said there were about 140 evacuees, but some people with no damage to their properties had gone home.
In the nearby Hurunui District, the rain has caused power outages, road closures and flooding.
Emergency Management Officer Allan Grigg says the district has recorded significant and varied rainfall over the past 24 hours - with totals ranging from about 30mm in some areas to more than 200mm in others.
Some 57 properties near Hanmer Springs were without power overnight. Lines company MainPower said drones were being used to patrol and assess the network today.
Grigg said a bridge off Inland Kaikōura Road has lost its approaches, cutting off a small farming community, while freedom camping sites around Hanmer Springs, which were closed earlier, are now underwater.
Hanmer Springs township was largely "fully operational and okay", but with more heavy rain forecast later today, residents should avoid travelling and keep food and water supplies on hand.
No evacuations have been needed so far - but it has been a difficult storm, he said.
"The big challenge with this rain event has been high variability and rainfall in different locations.
"So we've had as much as 80 or 90 mills difference between two locations, only a few kilometres away from each other. So it's been very, very challenging to maintain situational awareness of where the rain is falling...and the needs that area developing in the district."
Weather moves north
The weather has moved on to the lower North Island, where MetService meteorologist Alec Holden said "it's just going to be quite wet and miserable" for Wellington and surrounding areas for the next couple of days.
South Wairarapa's deputy mayor Rob Taylor warned that the worst rainfall was yet to come for the already saturated region.
The region's emergency operations centre was up and running in preparation.
"But clearly, the weather is expected to get much worse.
"The ground is already sodden so we're going to expect high levels of rainfall, more flooding and the closures that we already have are possibly going to increase over the next 24 hours."
- Additional reporting by Allied Media
