Cleanup commences, Council counting costs as Spring Creek residents return

Spring Creek residents began flooding cleanup while rain fell Saturday, while the town's compromised Wairau River stop bank reportedly held up “remarkably well” after a two-day evacuation due to flooding risk.

In the township 10 km north of Blenheim, locals gave Mayor Nadine Taylor, Marlborough District Council CEO John Boswell and emergency response staff on site a list of ways they could help now and recommendations for similar events in the future.

Residents were using their water pumps to assist properties impacted by flooding throughout Saturday, but as equipment and personnel became available from the region they were sent to take over from the community response throughout the day.

Clayton was moving pumps borrowed from his employer Robinsons Construction as well as Simcox to where they were most needed throughout the morning.

“We’ve made some progress in properties on the other end [of Hathaway St] so pulled these three electric pumps and it's making a difference”, he said.

“Luckily, the main culvert is holding out and taking it away from here - we'd have all been screwed otherwise.

“I was having to hassle a few people yesterday that would have this sort of equipment - this is when they should be stepping up without being asked.

“You do what you can to help the neighborhood, and it brings the community together because it’s all in our best interests – we live here”.

Jed and Charlie Gibbs were in Spring Creek to check on property with mum Tash but weren’t braving the walk down Hathaway St yet.

“We’ve just come back from staying with our dad, so this is our first time seeing it, and it’s a bit insane really”, said Charlie.

“It made me nervous hearing about the stop bank, with the earthquakes and the flooding, so I hope they strengthen it”, said Jed.

“Last time this all happened everyone was out and helping one another so there’s a really good sense of that here of taking pumps around to low-lying places and digging drains”, added Tash.

“I left on Thursday evening, but in ’20 and ‘21 it flooded down the other end of the road so it’s a bit more impactful for us – I’m just concerned about the garage really because it’s a bit lower than the rest of the property.

“It’s a bit annoying though, because we told we were allowed back in but now still can’t get in”.

“This is the worst it's ever been in the township since I remember”, said Teagan, who’s Ferry Rd property was impacted yesterday.

“My house is a bit further up Ferry Rd and we were getting flooded last night but everyone brought pumps and came to help us, so it’s now just helping where we can.

“Down the far end they're pumping from properties into Hathaway St and it's a trail we're on the end of draining it into the floodway, but basically the local neighbours have been fantastic.

“It would be good for the Council to have had pumps available on standby, the Mayor did leave with a big list of things she reckons we were going to get more pumps and stuff put in here, so that's a good sign our concerns are being heard”.

Emergency response winds down:

As of 4pm, the Marlborough Emergency Management response is winding down and transitioning to a recovery phase, while the Civil Defence Centre at Stadium 2000 has closed.

Mayor Nadine Taylor said the many response agencies, working under the unified command of Marlborough Emergency Management, had done a great job.

“I’m really proud of the hundreds of people who worked selflessly on behalf of the community to keep everyone safe.

"Many of the people participating are volunteers. The response was very well managed and all the agencies worked seamlessly together.”

“While there is ongoing roading damage and surface flooding, these will be addressed by individual agencies such as Council, Marlborough Roads and NZTA over the coming days and weeks.

"The Council’s Rivers (flood protection) team will immediately begin a project to fix the compromised stop bank at the Waihopai/Wairau rivers confluence.”

“Regarding Spring Creek, an $8.7M construction programme was agreed with the community in May last year, which includes $3.6M funding from Central Government. The project involves major groundwork, which will commence over the summer period from November 2025. During this period, rock and materials will be stockpiled near the site, temporary infrastructure like haul roads will be built, and other preparations made, to maximise the stop bank construction window in November 2026.”

Water, water everywhere:

Marlborough District Council Rivers team manager Andy White was in Spring Creek midday Saturday, coordinating the continued efforts of emergency responders and Defence Force staff in taking over public cleanup jobs from locals.

He says that thanks to Spring Creek residents evacuating early, Civil Defence was better positioned to respond to developing circumstances.

“This weather event has been extremely unpredictable since we started taking notice of it and running models on Monday and even thought there was extreme ambiguity in the numbers, we’d much rather be safe than sorry.

“Decisions about whether we evacuate or not are taken by Civil Defence, and we recommended it because we knew we would have widespread issues.

“Having Spring Creek residents evacuate early meant we had police cordons in place keeping homes safe and swift water rescue teams on standby, while still able to reallocate resources and respond to events like the Waihopai stop bank piping issues that was threatening parts of Renwick.

“Our largest Wairau River predictions came out with 4000 cumecs which it didn’t quite reach, and our overnight monitoring team said it has performed remarkably well for the state it is in – there’s been no seepage, but we’ll be able to better assess what state it is in over the next few days”.

As floodwaters recede and rivers return to their banks over the weekend, Andy says the damage assessment and response work is already planned to start.

“Council has got all hands-on deck right now especially focused on public health issues where you've got stormwater, but with the backup of the Defence Force and Civil Defence too, we’ll start the cleanup and assessment.

“We would expect there's going to be significant erosions in certain areas and so what that means for landowners, what they might have lost, the proximity of landfills, bridges, etc, so we won't really know full effects until we get up in the air across the region over the weekend.

“Hydrologists have said the Awatere has been high as anything they’ve seen which is phenomenal, but it is an area where we don't have levels of service for flood protection so has different challenges to the Wairau and Pelorus”.

As the weather clears, a cross-Council team will inspect the wider region via helicopter.

“I know there's frustrations, and we'll be across the region to hear out and deal with those in the coming weeks and months and we will have the Spring Creek stop banks fully repaired by June 2027, I’ll put my name to it.

“Priorities will switch to plug in the gaps in interim, and we've got engineers and design engineers on flights Monday with the first meetings already arranged for Spring Creek and the Waihopai”.

Sewerage warning

As a result of the rain, Blenheim’s sewerage system is struggling to cope with the level of rainfall and residents are asked to flush toilets only when necessary.

Council’s Operations and Maintenance Engineer Stephen Rooney asked people to go easy with flushing toilets and definitely don’t flush if the bowl level is higher than normal and stay out of flooded areas due to potential issues with sewage and contamination.

“Don’t put the kids' raincoats and gumboots on and send them out to play in flooded areas – and if you have, make sure you disinfect them afterwards,” he said.

The sewer system is running above normal and it will be a while before it returns to normal. Meanwhile, river levels are not expected to rise significantly.