Dunedin declares a state of emergency as a rare red rain warning floods the city

Dunedin has spent the weekend under one of the most serious weather warnings the city can be given, with a rare red heavy rain alert bringing surface flooding, road closures and a scramble to fill sandbags across South Dunedin. Heavy rain arrived earlier than forecasters expected on Sunday and kept falling into the night, with civil defence teams warning the worst was still to come.

MetService upgraded its warning for coastal Dunedin and Clutha from orange to red at about 12.35pm on Sunday, a level reserved for the most extreme events where significant impact and disruption are likely. The forecaster told residents in low lying coastal parts of Dunedin and Clutha to expect between 80 and 120mm of rain from noon on Sunday until 9am Monday, with the heaviest falls arriving from late Sunday afternoon. On Sunday evening it updated the outlook again, warning of a further 50 to 70mm on top of what had already come down, especially from Milton northwards, with rain rates of 10 to 15mm an hour possible until early Monday. Snow was expected above 300 metres.

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Dunedin’s civil defence bunker was activated during the day, and the city’s emergency operations centre began fielding reports of trouble as low lying areas took on water. As RNZ reported, a team of volunteers filled sandbags for hours at the Dunedin Ice Stadium while others loaded them into trucks and vans to deliver to houses around South Dunedin, the part of the city most exposed to flooding because it sits so close to sea level.

The most visible closure was on State Highway 88 between Sawyers Bay and Port Chalmers, where the road beneath the railway overpass at Sawyers Bay was inundated with about half a metre of water. Drivers heading to Port Chalmers were told to turn off at Sawyers Bay and take Borlases Road instead. A local resident told the Otago Daily Times that other parts of Sawyers Bay were also flooding and that it was unusual, adding that while the heavy rain was clearly a factor, a blocked drain might also be to blame.

Snow closed several inland state highways at the same time, stretching the response across a wide area. State Highway 87 between Kyeburn and Outram, State Highway 85 between Kyeburn and Palmerston, and State Highway 8 between Omarama and Tarras through the Lindis Pass were all shut, leaving parts of Central Otago cut off from the usual routes north and inland.

Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker described it as a significant weather event across the city and urged people to stay put. “We’re now seeing localised incidents of surface flooding and minor land instability,” she said. “As a result, we’re asking people to stay home if possible, avoid any unnecessary travel and keep up to date with all the latest information. Our roading and pipe networks are coping well so far, but there’s more rain to come tonight. If anyone feels unsafe, they should self-evacuate to friends or family if possible in the first instance.” She said anyone in danger should call 111, and anyone with nowhere else to go could contact the council for support.

Barker also had a warning about something other than the weather. She said fake images generated by artificial intelligence had been circulating online and causing problems for the staff working in the civil defence bunker. “The challenge is that some people are posting fake AI stuff, which is completely and utterly unhelpful,” she said. The mayor confirmed that at least one widely shared photo of flooding was genuine, but the flood of fabricated images was making it harder for emergency staff to get a clear picture of what was actually happening on the ground.

In Mosgiel, residents were asked not to shower or flush their toilets for several hours while a malfunctioning valve at the wastewater pumping system was repaired. The problem was reported to the emergency operations centre just after 7pm on Sunday and staff were on site quickly. Council controller Sandy Graham said teams would work as fast as they could to fix it, and asked Mosgiel residents to keep an eye on news and social media for updates.

South Dunedin has good reason to be nervous about heavy rain. The suburb sits on reclaimed land with a high water table, and it was hit hard by flooding in 2015 when a similar deluge left hundreds of homes swamped. Much of the work done in the years since, including improved pumping and stormwater management, was being tested again over the weekend as the rain kept coming.

By late Sunday the picture was still worsening. MetService flagged a high chance that the orange heavy rain warning for coastal north Otago would also be lifted to red, and the neighbouring Clutha district was dealing with its own flooding. As the situation escalated overnight, a state of emergency was declared for Dunedin and evacuation centres were opened for residents whose homes were under threat, with Clutha following suit, according to reporting by the New Zealand Herald. A declaration gives civil defence controllers extra powers, including the ability to order evacuations and control access to affected areas.

The red warning was valid until 10am on Monday, and residents were being told to prepare for a difficult night before the rain was expected to ease. The Otago Regional Council and MetService both urged people to avoid travel where they could, stay away from flooded roads and rivers, and check on neighbours who might need a hand. For a city that knows exactly what a wet weekend can do, the message was simple enough. Stay home, stay dry and wait it out.

Were you affected by the Dunedin flooding, or did you help fill sandbags over the weekend? Tell us what you saw in the comments below.

This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂