Tasman heavy rain forecast: hope for the best but prepare for the worst, deputy mayor says
Flooding in Tasman last week.
Photo:
RNZ/Mark Papalii
Tasman's deputy mayor says residents should hope for the best but prepare for the worst as heavy rain is forecast for Wednesday afternoon.
The region is recovering from
widespread flooding
that wrecked homes and farmland. Since the flooding, 15 homes have been yellow stickered and one has been red stickered. They were in the Motueka Valley, Tapawera and Wai-iti.
MetService has issued a
heavy rain watch
over part of the Tasman District north-west of Motueka running from 1pm Wednesday until 3am Thursday.
"It's a little bit of a concern, particularly when local soils are so wet and people are still in recovery mode. A lot of people in the community are starting to feel the
weight of the previous flooding
which has been quite a burden to some people," deputy mayor Stuart Bryant said.
"More rain on top of what we've already had will just exacerbate what's already happened. There'll be soft soils at places where rivers are and we're worried that it'll crumble away into the river and more productive land will be washed away and lost.
"The other risk is, of course, silt or gravel coming over your land."
He said recovery from the previous flood had been daunting.
"Every day there's appeals for people to come and help with tidying up in different areas," he said.
"Student Army and lots of groups are stepping up but of course it all takes time to organise and co-ordinate and the clean up's not going to be exceptionally quick, it'll take weeks if not months."
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