Heavy rain in some areas last week lead to widespread flooding, slips and road closures. Photo: Kate Green
The army and FENZ are sending reinforcements to Nelson-Marlborough as the sodden region girds for more heavy rain forecast for the early hours of Thursday morning.
Civil defence Nelson Tasman group controller Alec Louverdis said he is planning "for the absolute worst" ahead of two orange rain warnings across the region.
Given how wet the area already is, the elevated groundwater table and the rivers flowing hard and high, it would not take much for the situation to be exacerbated, he said.
"We're bringing in all the necessary resources from outside the region - we're getting some equipment from the New Zealand Defence Force, we've got a specialist helicopter on standby, we've got recovery crews from Christchurch complementing our own team from the Nelson-Tasman region, FENZ is bringing in their rapid river response teams."
FENZ Te Ihu Region Manager Brad Mosby confirmed sending two Specialist Water Rescue Teams, a Technical Urban Search and Rescue Team, and an operations commander to oversee and coordinate the deployment.
It would also be standing up a Regional Coordination Centre to monitor the situation from Christchurch, and working closely with local emergency management and other emergency responders, he said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Louverdis said there were no plans to pre-emptively evacuate people, but the situation was being assessed "as we speak" and would be revisited as the MetService updates its forecasts.
The warning for the Tasman district, west of Motueka, runs from 3am Thursday to 9pm, and anticipates 120 to 150 millimetres of rain, with more possible around the coast.
The warning for the remainder of the Tasman district, as well as the Nelson district, Richmond and Bryant Ranges including the Rai Valley, and the Marlborough Sounds begins at 6am on Thursday, and forecasts 80 to 100 millimetres of rain about the Sounds and ranges.
More than 300 millimetres of rain fell in some areas late last week, leading to widespread flooding, slips and road closures.
Two localised states of emergency remain in place as the clean up continues.
Community meetings will take place Wednesday at 2pm at the Wakefield Hall, and at 3pm at the Tapawera Rugby Clubrooms.
There's also a "one stop shop" Emergency Information and Assistance Hub at the Motueka Recreation Centre, which had representatives from various agencies offering practical assistance as well as a place to "have a cup of coffee and a cry".
Alongside preparing for the anticipated heavy rain, civil defences' top priority was completing welfare checks, Louverdis said.
Teams were still working to get around all the damaged homes, especially in more remote communities.
So far, there had been far fewer houses red and yellow stickered - which prohibited or restricted people from returning home - compared with the 2022 Nelson flooding, he said.
At this stage, four homes had been yellow-stickered, and Louverdis had heard of a red stickered property, but could not yet confirm its location.
But there were almost certainly hundreds of homes that had been flooded, which would require significant work to remove carpets, furniture and other damaged items, he said.
He said while many stop banks had been breached or "overtopped", they had mostly held up well, but the damage to rivers was "extensive.
"Some of the rivers have forged their own new paths, especially with the volumes of water we've seen. The river bank work and recovery will take literally years."
In a social media post, the Tasman District Council said under normal circumstances, the amount of rain forecast would produce low to moderate floods.
However, given the saturated ground and compromised infrastructure, "we are far from normal."
The council said Golden Bay's larger rivers should manage the expected rainfall, but smaller catchments would react more quickly, and surface flooding and slippage will be of concern.
The Riwaka and Brooklyn catchments would also react quickly to the rainfall, and will need to be monitored closely, while elsewhere, rain in the smaller catchments would produce higher flows than normal, impacting the already affected catchments such as Wai-iti, Upper Motueka and Motupiko.
Two localised states of emergency remain in place as the clean-up continues. Photo: RNZ/Mark Papalii
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