“They were a little bit off in terms of the timing. They were predicting the timing earlier than it actually happened by about nine hours or so,” she said. The West Coast Regional Council warned in 2017 lives could be lost and up to $144 million of property damaged if a major flood were to hit Westport.
Peter Meecham/Stuff
Locals watched on earlier this month as the Buller River became inundated with water. The seaside town has very limited flood protection, and a limited monitoring and flood alert system. The water level in the Buller River at Te Kuha peaked at 12.8 metres at 1.35pm on July 17, several hours ahead of the peak flooding in Westport. This was the biggest flood recorded since the Te Kuha monitoring site was established in 1963.