Surface flooding in Christchurch today. Photo: RNZ / Joe Shaw
Heavy rain is drenching Canterbury, causing a slip, surface flooding and road closures, with downpours forecast to continue into the night.
Orange heavy rain warnings were in place for Canterbury between Amberley and Timaru, including Christchurch and Banks Peninsula, and north of Amberley, where MetService noted there was a high chance of an upgrade to a red warning.
The Kaikōura coast and ranges were also covered by an orange rain warning, along with a strong wind warning for coastal Marlborough south of Blenheim.
Canterbury Civil Defence and Emergency Management group controller James Thompson said surface flooding was expected in the Hurunui, Waimakariri and Selwyn districts, with swollen smaller rivers.
"We're looking at rainfall that is the equivalent of two to three times what we'd normally see in a month. It is significant rain," he said.
Thompson said councils were not expecting big rivers to break their banks.
"At the moment, particularly from a flood control point of view, we're not seeing it being red at the moment, but we're monitoring and fully prepared in case we do need to make it red," he said.
He urged people not to drive through floodwaters, with the heaviest rain due overnight into Thursday morning.
Surface flooding in Christchurch. Photo: RNZ / Joe Shaw
A slip had reduced State Highway 1 near Greta Valley to one lane, while Hanmer River Reserve was closed because of the flood risk.
Hurunui District mayor Marie Black said rain had been falling steadily in the region all day.
"It is very much a watch and wait situation. The prediction is for heavier falls, but from a district perspective, there are no issues that we can't manage at this point and we've got our teams ready to go to support the community as if and when that's required," she said.
She said the council was prepared if the weather warning was upgraded to red.
"If it does eventuate, we've had good warning by the MetService and obviously we will manage that accordingly," she said.
"This is really the time when we need to hunker down and look after each other."
Rain and high tides had affected roads around Christchurch's Avon River, closing part of New Brighton Road and Avonside Drive.
Local roads were closed near Methven in the Ashburton district because of flooding at Dry Creek.
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