Te Ore Ore Rd flooding. PHOTOS/KAREN COLTMAN
KAREN COLTMAN
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Heavy metal lids above the wastewater pipe system at the south end of Lansdowne were pushed off by the huge volumes of water pumping through them on Tuesday morning.
Masterton District Council contractors struggled in heavy rain to secure them back down.
A pool of water half a metre deep covered the Te Ore Ore Rd and Wavell Cres intersection on Tuesday morning, and the heavy steel wastewater cap had floated off and on to the road.
Water came out of that outlet and ran southwards into the Henley Lake grounds.
Over in Colombo Rd by the netball courts, the situation was the same with a fountain appearing where the pipe cap was pushed off.
Dave Colville said when he got out of his car on Colombo Rd he could “definitely smell sewage”.
He said sewage was on his car tyres.
Stormwater had leaked into the sewage network, overloading the pipe at the bottom end of the system by Henley Lake.
MDC has consent to open an emergency discharge system which diverts the flow to land.
A council spokesperson said leakage of stormwater to sewage pipes, often from stormwater pipes from private property, was an issue that the council continued to invest in.
Gordon St resident Kevin Healy is fed up with the flooding. He says he has been told by MDC that the flooding events only happened every 100 years.
“I have lived here for six years, and this type of flood has occurred eight times I reckon,” Healy said.
“The entire front lawn at number 37 is a swimming pool and their garage floods in this weather. The water pours down from the two Roberts Rd wastewater pipes into one lower down and the one pipe can’t cope.”
Healy was fortunate the house he bought has an extra grate by the garage and a pump.
He said council put a raised barrier on his driveway when it redid the footpath, so that had helped to get the water coming down the street to drain away to the south of his property.
But he said the council owned land next to him and was considering using it for more drainage, “but it just doesn’t happen and then we get this”.
“Council is relying on the streams and creeks to take the extra rainwater, but this is not working either,” Healy said.
He was also concerned that the 47-hectare subdivision at the top of the road, that he said was being divided into 240 sections, would bring more water that would stream down surrounding streets.
He was not sure sumps would solve the problem.
Over in Allenby St, several front yards were flooded on Tuesday morning with water right up to the front porches.
Higgins and CityCare contractors started work at first light to clear drains and get barriers up around flood zones.
At the end of the road, two council contractors were pushing poles down drains to unblock them but as the heavy rain kept coming it was virtually futile.
Manuka St Reserve was closed due to flooding at about 3pm
Midmorning, Masterton Fire Service helped Ali Hunt at her King Edward St property to get her furniture off sodden carpet after her garage flooded as water poured out of drains blocked with leaves and down her driveway.
“It was frightening actually – as I walked out of my bedroom into sodden carpet, I opened the garage door, and the water just poured in like a tidal wave and soaked everything,” Hunt said.
“I feel pretty shaken and upset actually. I’ve never seen anything like this, and it really shouldn’t have happened.”
Chem Dry is removing all her carpet that was put down three years ago.
Her furniture is raised off the floor in most places.
She is staying with her daughter until her home is dried out but came back on Tuesday afternoon to feed her cat.
