Low risk to life but Middlemarch flooding still takes toll

Otago Daily Times

2 days ago

By Tess Brunton of RNZ
The Otago Regional Council says there is no simple solution to stop the rural town of Middlemarch from flooding, but the risk to life is lower than expected.
In recent years, flooding has spread water and contaminated muck through homes, businesses and streets, impacting bores and blocking roads.
On Tuesday, the council hosted a community meeting to discuss the latest flood update and potential ways to reduce them.
The sound of heavy rains sparked anxiety for some Middlemarch residents, as swelling streams flowed down the Rock and Pillar Range towards the town.
In 2018, a deluge turned some streets into sewage ponds with one business flooding to knee-deep filthy water.
Ruth Manning has owned a holiday home in Middlemarch for more than 20 years - it has been hit twice in recent floods.
"So about 50 to 60 centimetres up the wall the water damage spread. I've had to have the carpet fully replaced twice and most of the furnishings that were in the cottage replaced as well," she said.
"That's two insurance claims and we have been advised now that we won't be insured again should it happen again and our excess has gone up to $5000."
The community hall was packed with Middlemarch residents who wanted to hear about the latest science and solutions from Otago Regional Council.
The council found existing culverts, channels and bridges were too small, there were no easy solutions and they would likely be costly and challenging to implement.
But council's flood hazard analyst Nathan Anderson said there was also some good news, including debris flow not being a major concern.
"The risk of people losing their lives or getting injured ... is what specifically our focus was and that is relatively low because we don't have areas that are getting extremely deep or moving very fast," he said.
One resident told the meeting that calling it low risk did not properly account for the toll it took on the community.
"I think that underplays and undervalues the stresses that people have that live in the flood-prone areas and when the rain hits, I get a number of phone calls from people that live in those areas that have been flooded and they're damned anxious," he said.
Nathan Anderson acknowledged the concerns, saying that the risk to life might be low but the council was aware of the other impacts from flooding.
A flooded caravan did not deter Patrick Flanagan from settling here about five years ago.
"It didn't stop us from building, we just had to build 400 millimetres above any known flood height," he said.
"For the community, it was a bit devastating because some businesses closed down and, obviously, it puts a lot of stress on people whose places are very close to flooding."
He was pleased to see the council were taking the issue seriously and he hoped to see more solutions that would help to protect homes in the community.
Ruth Manning was keen to see some longer term solutions that could help Middlemarch to grow, saying it was an affordable place to live.
"There's multiple residential properties here in the area and I think people are put off by the risk of flooding and actually buying in the first place," she said.
"But if we had a good flood mitigation scheme, then it would actually attract more people to this area."
In 2023, the council installed a new rain gauge to boost flood forecasting in the area.
Improving channels, creating a diversion channel and debris basins were among the possible solutions, but Nathan Anderson said there was no silver bullet solution despite using modelling to test a range of different options.
The ballpark figures ranged from about $2 million to upwards of $15 million and did not include design or land costs.
"We're here to help solve their problems. That's really what we hope to get out of it," Anderson said.
"At the end of the day, it really comes down to it's going to be their decision of how they want to achieve that balance between cost and effectiveness."
Another resident told the meeting that the flooding hit their water bores and could potentially take weeks to fix, forcing people to boil their water to brush their teeth or rely on water tankers.
Angela and Shane Foster hoped to start building their Middlemarch home in the next 12 months.
Armed with information from the council and locals, they were opting for a foundation that would raise it up on piles to give them more protection, he said.
"We are on a wee bit of an incline so we believe from what we've been told it doesn't get that far up but one in 100 year (flood) could get that far up," he said.
Angela Foster said the community wanted to see some action.
"There has been a lot of modelling done in offices. There's been a lot of interesting work done behind the scenes, but there doesn't seem to be much happening on the ground," she said.
"I think if people see things happening on the ground, whether it be widening of creeks or clearing out of creeks or whatever it may be, if they could see some actual work it might help people's view that they're being helped and not just being forgotten about."
Otago Regional Council hoped to have more detailed options to show the community in the next year, but said it was clear that the community wanted to hear more about solutions.