Mokoreta River rising sharply

The Mokoreta River is rising sharply tonight and Environment Southland’s hydrologists are monitoring the situation across the region.

Duty Floodwarning Officer Wendy Barrow said that the Mokoreta River was the only river currently causing concern.

At 8pm it had reached 1.63 metres above normal and was rising steadily at 183mm an hour. While this was high enough to trigger the Council’s floodwarning protocols, it was still over a metre below the peak reached during flooding in February this year.

Data about all the region’s major rivers is available 24 hours a day on www.es.govt.nz with a link from the home page. Recorded information about river levels and rainfall is also available on (03) 211 5101.

Met Service is also predicting high winds by the morning.