Thread: Drought up north this down south

Yip, pretty bloody wet down here the last few days!

_DSF5158 by Ben, on Flickr
_DSF5174 by Ben, on Flickr
_DSF5218 by Ben, on Flickr
_DSF5325 by Ben, on Flickr

As far as the climate change question goes - I've been in Gore about 10 years and this is the biggest flood I've seen here in that time (peaked at 2500 cumecs and 4.8m above normal level), but its smaller than 1999 (and lots of earlier big floods like 78 and 84) and this time of year often sees the heaviest rainfall here. So it was probably due for one. The biggest I've seen photos of was 1913, before they had floodbanks on the river.

Urban flooding is probably getting worse/more frequent, but thats related to more development with higher densities, bigger houses and more hard surface driveways etc - so the rain runs off faster and more of it goes straight into the stormwater system instead of soaking into the ground. Combine that with decades of councils not investing in upgrading stormwater systems and its no surprise that you get surface flooding after heavy rain because the pipes can't handle the extra flow. New developments have to meet higher standards (the developers are the ones paying of course), but they're still feeding into the same old downstream network.

Originally Posted by GravelBen

Yip, pretty bloody wet down here the last few days!

As far as the climate change question goes - I've been in Gore about 10 years and this is the biggest flood I've seen here in that time (peaked at 2500 cumecs and 4.8m above normal level), but its smaller than 1999 (and lots of earlier big floods like 78 and 84) and this time of year often sees the heaviest rainfall here. So it was probably due for one. The biggest I've seen photos of was 1913, before they had floodbanks on the river.

Urban flooding is probably getting worse/more frequent, but thats related to more development with higher densities, bigger houses and more hard surface driveways etc - so the rain runs off faster and more of it goes straight into the stormwater system instead of soaking into the ground. Combine that with decades of councils not investing in upgrading stormwater systems and its no surprise that you get surface flooding after heavy rain because the pipes can't handle the extra flow. New developments have to meet higher standards (the developers are the ones paying of course), but they're still feeding into the same old downstream network.

Thanks for the reportage and pics @GravelBen !!!
Hard to envisage considering what most are going through with heat and no rains

Sadly, looks like more incoming as well with a "T" heading for South Is end of next week. Yikes.

No worries @Sarvo , more of my photos here if you are interested:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLby3Hh

some very sad stories emerging of the serious extent and nature of damage a lot of folks are facing. And this probably the tip of the iceberg https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12306669
And the govt's response has been what?? The silence is deafeaning ..... completely arrogant and disgusting.
I've seen mention of $100k from govt - like that's going to go far. NOT !!
Polies all too busy making speeches, getting their photo ops & stuffing their faces at Waitangi.
I see Helen Clarke has tweeted her concerns about the future of concert program on Radio NZ - well fuck me, pretty clear where some peoples priorities lie.

16mm of rain for the BOP we've got 20 year hedge plants sulking and losing their leaves due to lack of moisture looking forward to some rain

We finally got back in to our place today had around 2.5 foot of water around the house & through the sheds , 3 freezers drowned , hay plus a bunch of other assorted stuff , luckily the house is around 800 high off the ground else it would be buggered , powers back on now , skip in the drive so things are on the up .

Always wanted my own lake.

Looks like the kids are loving it, all the best for the clean up @Boaraxa

It would be nice just shooting off the deck !! , speaking of decoys I’m missing a wool packs worth of flock decoys along with most of my fire wood !!! & shock horror my ring binder folder full of my reload info is satched luckly I carefully peeled the pages apart and took photos , crises averted

Bugger, looks like you copped it a bit @Boaraxa . Gore got off pretty light overall, floodbanks held more than they were designed for so it must have been close though.

@GravelBen Yea man an insane amount of water sat here for around 3 days , our ditch in front of the house has a stopper on the end we’re it drains into the river so all this water built up as the road acted like a dam wall until it started going over the road , most of our water came from boundary creek , it’s not all bad though team ...a certain someone made the headlines for rescuing some poor sheep ...that same person according to seven sharp is now NEW ZEALANDER OF THE WEEK walked into the local the last nigh went to pay for a big bot instead it was on the house ...I don’t think it gets much better
Here’s another pic our place is bottom rite green roof.