Downpour drenches Motueka in near-record event

April 22nd, 2013
[by David Armstrong]

All residents now know, from the lead news on TV and radio, that yesterday's extreme rain event neared historic record-breaking levels for Richmond, and Motueka received a decent share as well.

For the many readers of this website who live out of the district or overseas, the coastal Tasman district was visited yesterday afternoon by a massive rain front of tropical storm proportions (thankfully without much wind) that dumped around 144mm over 12 hours in Richmond, mostly in a one-hour period around 5pm.

The same rain bomb passed over Motueka a couple of hours earlier on its way south-eastward. It was too wet for this timid reporter to get out and about town to see and record the results, but living near the Woodlands Canal beside Thorps Bush, I took these photos (below) of the normally dry canal from the bridge behind the Equestrian Motel, looking both downstream and upstream toward New World. This canal ditch is nearly two metres deep.

Unofficial measurements of the rain in central Motueka (ie, my two back-yard rain gauges) showed about 85mm fell over the 24 hours from 9am Sunday, with just under 70mm during the heaviest spell about mid-afternoon.

This followed an accumulation of around 95mm over the preceding four or five days. The 2013 drought is definitely over! But spare a thought for the orchardists. Also for the residents up the Riwaka Valley who may have no road access for a few days due to landslips.

Update: Tasman District Council has issued a boil-water notice to Motueka residents on the reticulated system, and advises all bore owners to boil water.

"Any resident who has had mud and silt inundation on their property should take care when cleaning up because of the possibility of sewage contamination," the Council said.

If any readers have other photos of flooding etc in and around Motueka yesterday, please use the contact link below to email them and I'll add them to the page.

Bethany Park, Kaiteriteri, by Terri Everett

Richmond Mall, by Lisa Ball

>> , to be added to the page. [If this link doesn't work, use this form instead]

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