Lake Level Update Friday 9am

Lake Wakatipu is continuing to slowly rise at the rate of 1cm an hour and we cannot yet dismiss that the flooding of some premises could occur later today or into tomorrow,” Queenstown Lakes District Council Mayor Clive Geddes said.

Lake Wanaka also continued to rise overnight but remained under the flood alert level.

“The immediate concern we have is with the wind forecast for later today, which could in turn lead to wave action creating problems on both the Queenstown and Kingston foreshores,” Mr Geddes said.

With Lake Wakatipu sitting at 311.43m, significant ponding had occurred on the foreshore reserves and on roads.
Although the forecast heavy rainfall event did not eventuate yesterday, Lake Wakatipu remained precariously high.

“We are likely to be at some risk for some days to come with the next significant front forecast on Monday,” Mr Geddes said.

Beach and Rees Streets would remain closed to traffic but it was essential that all roads into the Central Business District remained accessible to retailers, contractors and emergency vehicles.

“For Queenstown it is very much business as usual because the impact of this event is on a very small area,” Mr Geddes said.

Mr Geddes said that meant the airport and other core infrastructure were not affected and most of the visitor attraction businesses were operating as normal.

The Council wished to recognise the outstanding level of cooperation that it had received over the past three days from the business community.

“We have had excellent co-operation from retailers dealing with what is clearly not an easy environment and from the public at large and that is appreciated,” Mr Geddes said.

The Council was working with the Otago Regional Council to update forecasting later today.
“We hope to have a clearer picture of where we are headed for the district and we will relay that information as we receive it,” Mr Geddes said.