Historical emergencies

The State of Local Emergency for South Westland Ward was terminated at 11.23am, 10 November, 2024.

Westland District SOLE lifted. No transition to recovery

A state of local emergency was declared for the Buller District on 2 February 2022 owing to severe weather expected to cause flooding in Westport.  Westport residents were advised to self-evacuate to friends and family outside Westport if possible and a mandatory evacuation order was issued for parts of Westport on 4 February 2022. The impacts of the severe weather were not as bad as initially expected and evacuated residents were allowed to return home on the morning of 5 February 2022. A second state of local emergency was declared for Buller District on 10 February 2022 owing to further rain impacts on the district. The state of local emergency was lifted at 4:15pm on 21 February and replaced with a notice of local transition period.

A local state of emergency was declared in the Westland District at 1745hrs on 26 March 2019 due to severe weather.

For further updates please go to: https://www.facebook.com/emergencywestcoast

A state of local emergency was declared for Franz Josef at 2:00am on 24 March 2016 as a result of the Waiho River flooding. Westland Civil Defence has issued a boil water notice for the whole of the Franz Josef town water supply area. This will stay in effect until further notice as a safety precaution. The town water supply is secure for the main town area and work is continuing to confirm the integrity of the supply to the wider Franz Josef area particularly to the north of the Town Centre. There is currently no unbooked overnight accommodation available in the greater Franz Josef area. There is a Red Cross Welfare Centre set up in the town and on standby if needed. All state highways north and south of Franz Josef are currently open and all booked accommodation will be honoured unless visitors are contacted by accommodation providers directly. The Civil Defence state of emergency will stay in place overnight and will be reviewed at 9.00am tomorrow morning (25 March 2016).

Westland District Council has transitioned to a recovery phase. Council staff have a Recovery team in place monitoring the cleanup of the town centre and surrounding streets, and are liaising with affected property owners. If there are any concerns about your property or safety please contact Westland District Council on 0800 474 834 or visit www.westlanddc.govt.nz/flooding-update for more information.

The current weather situation in Buller has subsided and surface flooding is dropping. However, further heavy rainfall is forecast for the Buller in the early hours of tomorrow morning. Buller Civil Defence encourages residents to make provisions and to prepare themselves as much as possible.

Declared at 0750, lifted at 1310 same day. A slip off the north face of Mt Adams occurred at 0330hrs on 6 October 1999 depositing 10-15 million cu.metres of debris in the Poerua river valley, blocking the river and creating a lake 1.2km long and over 80metres deep. The lake overtopped after 2 days of heavy rain caused the dam to breach at about 0745 on 12 October. 46 people were evacuated as water moved through the valley. Resultant damage was minimal despite aggregation raising the river bed substantially.

Declared at 1630, lifted 1355 next day. A replay of the previous week, 220 evacuated, 20 houses flooded through (12 at Seddonville, 1 at Mohikinui, 4 at Karamea and 3 at Waimare.

Declared at 2230, lifted 1340 next day. Karamea: 7 houses inundated; 66 people evacuated. Seddonville: 6 homes & hotel evacuated. Waimare: 3 baches evacuated.