Kia ora Koutou,
I thought I had sent this message on Monday…
Just for interest. This photo was taken at 11:20am Monday. At 7:30am the river at school wasn’t flowing much above normal with little discolouration and Otaika Valley Road river was not bursting banks upstream in the paddocks. By 10ish Otaika Valley Rd was flooded across both lanes in the bush area. At 11:10 the upper river paddocks above the Otaika Stream had peaked on the fences and was dropping with no rain since early morning. But the water had filled the paddocks in the Valley above the school through burst banks and slowly crossed Loop Rd. The Otaika Bush (range) accumulates a lot of water during rain events, but I predicted that it wouldn’t close the school pretty early on in the day. I drive the road and check to monitor the situation. If it has continued raining during the morning we would have had to close the school.
For new parents of the school, we have closed the school in the past during rain events, as this section of Loop Road and the 2nd bridge past the school are totally under water with no way out for the children. If we have a high tide the old section of Loop Road past the school goes under. In these situations we text/phone caregivers and evacuate the children.
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