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SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFF/Marlborough Express
Shoring up the stop banks before more rain on Monday next week. Marlborough’s recovery was going well and the focus was firmly on residents and communities, Leggett said. “We are conscious that more rain over the weekend could impact our already fragile roads so we will keep a close eye on the weather forecast over the next few days,” he said. “We will continue our work with the emergency team, and the many Marlborough-based agencies, organisations and iwi over the weekend, and weeks and months ahead, to get our region back up and running as soon as possible.”
STUFF
Rivers bursting their banks, flash floods and more intense cyclones. How climate change is making floods more extreme. “So that’s as far up the road as we got . and that alone is going to be quite a major fix,” Murrin said. A crew would need to cut a ramp into the side of the hole to get a digger in, to build a retaining wall for the hillside road. “It’s going to take some time. There will only be room for one digger, but there will be a lot of earth moving for that one digger, probably 1000 cubic metres of backfill. And we can’t run truck-and-trailers on this little road, it will be trucks only.”
“We’re not sure how much water got into the houses . The stop banks will be bomb-proof by the time we’re finished.” Marlborough Mayor John Leggett said the region’s civil defence team was conscious that more heavy rain could add more water to Marlborough s “already sodden soil”. More bad weather could affect Queen Charlotte Drive, which re-opened on Tuesday for the first time in three days with traffic measures, so workers could continue clearing slips. “Public safety is the only priority . Caution is key.” Leggett said the civil defence team was not yet sure how many houses had been damaged by the wild weather.
Chloe Ranford Local Democracy Reporter12:23, Jul 19 2021
Arwen van Pallandt/Supplied
Part of Queen Charlotte Drive between Havelock and Cullen Point in the Marlborough region has been washed away by flood water.
Tourists trapped in holiday homes in the Marlborough Sounds following a weekend of heavy rain are at risk of running out of food, Civil Defence says. Roads across Marlborough have been blocked, flooded or washed away after heavy rain battered the upper South Island over the weekend, triggering state of emergencies in some regions. Marlborough emergency services manager Brian Paton said while permanent residents were used to being stranded, often keeping a month’s worth of supplies, holidaymakers weren’t.