Precautionary Flood Measures Planned for Lakes Wānaka and Wakatipu

Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) is considering providing sand and sandbags as a precautionary measure in Wānaka from tomorrow morning.

With the risk of flooding in low-lying parts of Ardmore Street predicted by Otago Regional Council modelling, the QLDC emergency management team has decided to provide sand and sandbags for concerned businesses and property owners as a precautionary measure. The conditions and predictions will be reviewed early on Wednesday to confirm the need to go ahead.

If needed, sand and sandbags will be available from the Dunmore Street carpark, and times will be confirmed.

Teams will also be on standby to initiate road closures in the Ardmore Street area should conditions necessitate it.

The situation in Wānaka and the wider district will be assessed on a regular basis. At present the decision has been made not to issue sandbags and sand for other areas where the risk is not as high at this stage (Queenstown lakefront, Glenorchy and Kingston). At this point Lake Wakatipu is anticipated to reach low-lying reserve areas only. This will be reassessed with each update from ORC.

Current road closures in the district due to surface flooding are the Kinloch Road, Paradise Road and Mt Aspiring Road.

Further updates will be issued as the situation changes, with confirmation of plans for Wānaka announced by 9.30am tomorrow. At this stage, QLDC encourages all locals, businesses and property owners to monitor lake levels and latest advice via the ORC website.

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