All is well after night of rain

Environment Bay of Plenty staff kept an all-night alert but sodden stopbanks “did the job” in spite of rainfall last night.

Group manager community relations Bruce Fraser has had no reports of further damage to stopbanks on the Rangitaiki River, which breached at the height of the floods 11 days ago.

“That’s pretty good news. And it will give some comfort to people here. There was a real edginess around town yesterday as the rain fell and more rain was forecast. But it’s been fine,” Mr Fraser says. Further showers are forecast today but they are expected to be quite light.

Last night, just over 20mm of rain was logged at Aniwhenua Dam, above Matahina Dam on the Rangitaiki River. Two monitoring stations behind Opotiki clocked about 40 to 50mm.

Meanwhile, work continues on strengthening vulnerable areas of stopbank, including the 100m-wide breach upstream of Edgecumbe. More than 4000 cubic metres of rock has been used to shore up a damaged area near Te Teko.