SWAMPED

Don Farmer | Saturday, July 25, 2009 8:57

The tranquil look of the Ruamahanga River belies the fact the watercourse spilled out over hundreds of hectares of farmland near Glenmorven, Greytown. Photo: Lynda Feringa

A raging Ruamahanga River reinforced by floodways from its juncture with the Waiohine River at Papawai threatened to isolate Martinborough yesterday.

The main route into the town - State Highway 53- was closed at Waihenga Bridge for safety reasons as the aging structure has shallow piles that could crumble under the weight of a huge deluge of water.

Just before the bridge, on the Featherston side, the highway at Jenkins Dip was lost under several metres of raging water and the emergency bridge built above the roadway was only just able to be negotiated.

People from out of town who work in Martinborough -including South Wairarapa District Council's works and services manager Ravi Mangar used the Ponatahi Road to reach Martinborough yesterday morning, hoping that the flooding would not worsen and result in that also becoming closed in the late afternoon.

The road out of Martinborough to Lake Ferry was open yesterday morning but workmen were preparing to close it at the Opurua Spillway as the floods peaked in the lower valley later in the day.

Greater Wellington regional Council staff monitoring rainfall and river flows reported the rain gauge at Angle Knob in the Tararua Range recorded the most rain with 250mm over a 12 hour period .

The Ruamahanga River at Waihenga Bridge peaked at 4.9m with a flow of 961 cubic metres per second.

The council's flood warning officer started warning farmers along the Waiohine River from 6.30pm on Thursday and progressively along other river systems during the night.