Breaking news -Major flooding developing at Kapiti NZ -

Midnight Collective 

Working for our wetland birds...

We’ve had 120 mm of rain here over the last 12 hours and it's not looking like its going to stop there, as our local creek, the Wharemauku has begun to climb up into uncharted territory. It is now testing the Kapiti expressways flood plain design which is coming under serious stress…

3 hours ago it looked like it was coping. The Wharemauku had topped its banks and diverted into the flood plain. By 2.30 however the plain was full and the creek had begun pouring back into its old channel and beginning a dramatic rise. Back filling was also occurring, beginning to close roads in the centre of town. This hadn’t happened during the previous big flood, so is the expressway responsible?  This is the town flooding close to Wharemauku drain subsidiaries.

The major trouble (so far) is down stream, and here is the Wharemauku as it emerges from under the expressway bridge. It has done a right angle turn and is now pitching directly into the flood plain middle distance (south).

 That’s the bridge top left, while below is the creek that has now come out from the other end of the flood plain, 200 metres down stream. It is following the walkway. This was well contained at lunchtime, but it isn’t mucking around. It was too deep and swift to walk across at 2.30pm.

Above is the new creek streaming back into its old channel and below is the view downstream from there…. It has swallowed the walkway and is climbing the stop banks.

But the big problem is in the residential areas down stream where the last major flooding occurred after a similar amount of rain. These images show the water starting to rise again here.

As you can see we  are sitting on a knife edge down here though the rain is finally starting to ease up (4.05pm) and we're starting to see our hills again. Still it is usually an hour after it stops that the creek finally stops rising...   

Here's hoping everyone is keeping safe and dry... Kia kaha and

Ngā mihinui to you all

Midnight Collective