18 August 2022
We’re expecting heavy rain this afternoon and evening, so check out these tips from WREMO to make sure you’re flood ready:
- Stay up to date with warnings and watches at MetService: https://www.metservice.com/warnings/home
- If heavy rain is forecast, clear stormwater drains and gutters to help prevent surface flooding.
- In high winds – secure or bring inside your outdoor items like trampolines, wheelie bins, chairs, and pets.
- Stay out of flood waters. Do not drive or walk through it. Flood water is dangerous, strong currents can sweep away cars, structures and people. It can contain debris, sewage and chemicals that will make you sick.
- Check road conditions at before travelling: https://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/traffic/regions/9
- Have an evacuation plan and prepare a grab bag with essentials. Follow any instructions about evacuation of your area. Flash floods can happen quickly so if you see rising water do not wait for official warnings, self-evacuate. GTFO (Get The Flood Out)
Who to contact:
- Flood threats to property – 111
- River and stream hazards – Greater Wellington Regional Council 0800 496 734
- Surface flooding on roads/slips – Call us on 06 370 4030 or log a service request here https://cdc.govt.nz/service-request/
Our water team has been working hard to investigate the the faults within our network which caused us to previously request water-use restrictions during heavy rain. We have put temporary emergency measure in place. We’ve got our temporary mobile pump onsite to manually transfer water from where the intake is to an alternate pond to relieve the pressure when there are heavy inflows. This means we will NOT be asking people to limit their water use.
If you want more information about the ongoing process on our network investigations, please see our previous post here
We also get asked about whether or not we have cleared the storm drains.
Clearing stormwater drains is a roading function that we have a schedule for. So yes, these are cleaned on a regular, routine basis. 
Do we go out every day during winter when there is rain forecasted to check them all? Unfortunately no. With 441km of roads within our network, this would be a significant increase in service/cost/staffing resource.
Do we go out every day during winter when there is rain forecasted to check them all? Unfortunately no. With 441km of roads within our network, this would be a significant increase in service/cost/staffing resource.However, we do have our roading team at the ready during significant weather events so they can react to any issues that are reported You can report these here https://cdc.govt.nz/service-request/
You can report these here https://cdc.govt.nz/service-request/