Marae ready to help in state of emergency

A state of emergency has been declared in Waitomo District.

Mayor John Robertson made the announcement at 7:05 pm on Saturday night, due to heavy rain causing severe damage to roads, homes and infrastructure.

“We have serious flooding in Te Kūiti, water supply issues in parts of Te Kūiti, and serious damage on some of our roads.”

WDC said the Les Munro building had been set up as a welfare centre.

State Highway 3 was closed with a detour via Oparure Rd, the Waitomo District Council said (as of Saturday evening). SH30 at Kopaki was also closed.

Hangatiki East Rd, Te Kumi Station Rd and the Esplanade were all also closed due to flooding, as per the same announcement. WDC said were slips on Mangaokewa Rd, Te Anga Rd, Mangatea Rd, Maraetoa Rd, Rangitoto Rd, Walker Rd, Te Waitere Rd and SH37 at Waitomo Village.

The Te Kūiti Pa has opened its doors to anyone who needed a place to sleep, but luckily as of Sunday morning no one was staying there.

“I think we felt that things could have potentially got worse – 100 homes were affected,” Pā caretaker Shannon Manawaiti told the King Country News. “When multiple homes are affected in a small community like this... that prompted us to do something,” he said.

Te Kūiti Pa remained prepared should the situation worsen over the weekend.

“The marae is available,” Shannon said.

One of the biggest issues currently affecting the district is water supply. There has been a water main leak to the Mangarino Reservoir, the WDC said.

Our water services team has been working through the night to fix the watermain leak ... but unfortunately has been unsuccessful due to heavy flooding.”

They did not have an estimated time of fixture.

A water supply truck was called in to supply affected households. It will be parked at the Les Munro Centre from 8am Sunday.

People would need to bring their own containers.