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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Horizons ready to respond

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Flood management staff at Horizons Regional Council are ready to respond should they be called to action over the summer period following a refresher session at the Reids Line flood gates in Feilding.

Horizons operations manager Allan Cook visited the gates on Friday December 13 with a team of duty officers whose job it is to monitor water levels and activate a gate operating crew if required.

The gates were last closed in October when heavy rain fell across the Region and Mr Cook says Friday’s session provided a good opportunity to review operating processes.

“We usually run through operating practices at one of our flood management sites prior to Christmas to ensure our duty officers are prepped and ready to go if the call comes in,” Mr Cook says.

“It’s also a good chance to learn from one another. During the session we picked up a few things that we can put in place or improve for next time operation is required.”

As well as having operations and emergency management staff on call 24/7 throughout the Christmas and New Year period, Horizons also operates an automated river heights information system.

Anyone whose property may be affected in the event of high flows or flooding is encouraged to subscribe to this system which rings out automatically when rivers or streams reach certain levels based on data from Horizons’ river level recording sites.

More information about the system known as the Interactive Voice Response System or IVR is available via Horizons’ websitewww.horizons.govt.nz or by calling toll free number 0508 800 800.

Regional Council offices will be closed between from Monday 23 December through until Monday 6 January. However, water quality monitoring will continue throughout this time, the toll free number will remain open and additional staff will be on-hand throughout the break.

ENDS

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