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."
Rain won't be as heavy
MetService meteorologist John Law said the rain would start around 1pm and continue until the early hours tomorrow.
"It's not by any stretch the same amount of rain we've seen in the last few weeks ... but it is on top of already saturated conditions."
Northerly winds would help to push the rain into the northern and western parts of the region, around Motueka, however, the winds wouldn't be especially strong, Law said.
Another front was due to roll in on Friday and this would bring more rain for the top of the South Island and also the top of the North Island.
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