TC Debbie remnants 3rd-6th April NZ wide

[Simon Culling]

The flooding in Edgecumbe has made the news here in the UK. Looks like a serious event:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39511326

[Captain Salty]

I don't think it's stopped raining all day and I can't remember the last time that happened here. Watching the rain radar today is like watching a burnout of rain cloud over the city

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

More rain in the city and out on BP, rather than here.

[Manukau heads obs]

I do not have word to describe about poor Edgecumbe

[tgsnoopy]

The guys were saying the water came up from under the concrete section of the retaining wall, it undermined it's foundation and the rest is history. That Concrete section is of course where it had failed previously (1998), it came close to failure there again in 2004 but a failure upstream on the opposite side of the river lowered the level & flow. It's at Approx 60 College Road Edgecumbe, you can check it out on Street View, the drive through just before the Murals were painted. Gary Stone (Kaimaikid) & I were down there in 2004, the first Quake in the big swarm saw us on the rail line just after coming off the rail bridge over the flooded river where we had been taking photo's of the locals on the road bridge, we were glad we weren't still out there.

[Manukau heads obs]

I did see a video of the concrete wall and water coming through a crack
I guess that everyone was alerted to that it was going to fail and evacuate?
who made that call?

[Razor]

46mm in our neck of the woods yesterday, Jeffs Station down the road recording the wettest day in 3 years. Add another 16 from the day before, most significant event overall probably since the 2013 floods

All in all the ChCh infrastructure coped with flying colours, which is fantastic. Looks like it might get another test next week too!

[Razor]

I did see a video of the concrete wall and water coming through a crack
I guess that everyone was alerted to that it was going to fail and evacuate?
who made that call?

Thoughts with all the folk up there, how horrendous. Some big questions to answer regarding the failure I suspect, but in the meantime lets hope the clean up runs as smoothly as possible

[Manukau heads obs]

the big problem is that looked like very muddy water flowing through peoples houses (up to window height)
and so there will be alot of silt left on everthing (carpets, walls, furniture..everthing...all electronic stuff that got wet will be a right off)
also I hear that pets have been lost to the water etc

[jamie]

I heard on 1 news last night the water was 30% higher than what the stop banks were designed for. The dam also has more water the it was designed to handle.

[tgsnoopy]

I did see a video of the concrete wall and water coming through a crack
I guess that everyone was alerted to that it was going to fail and evacuate?
who made that call?

As I understand it (more than third hand, so purely hearsay effectively) there was a misunderstanding or miscommunication scenario with an engineer arriving from Whakatane to evaluate the situation as the collapse occurred. Had what was transpiring been conveyed accurately (Aka the pictures being e-mailed from the scene or similar, forwarded on to the engineer), the alarm would have been raised earlier. The failure occurred on the stop bank roughly opposite 60 College Rd. Initially it was leaking slowly under the concrete section which undermined it and allowed a section to move, tearing the Rubber mastic or similar sealant between sections, once that happened the failure accelerated and was all over quickly. Reports vary, I've heard from locals down there who say they had about 45 minutes warning, to others who say it was knee deep when the warning/evacuation notice came through. This wasn't something being taken lightly, the risks were known and there was staff there checking as it occurred. It was local council staff observing. Bear in mind at this point the land had subsided approx 1.5m in the 86 Edgecumbe Earthquake and it was around 2.5m below the river level.