Waipori The 1980 Floods

Waipori – the 1980 Flood On 4 June 1980 disaster struck at Waipori. After days of continuous rain, water started flowing into Waipori’s 2A power station and the levels of Lake Mahinerangi were rapidly rising. At 10pm all Waipori staff were called out for sandbagging and to inspect the gorge road and the village services. At midnight No. 3 station went offline and two hours later one of the generators at 2A stopped – and the flooding was getting worse. At 5am John Heaven, who at the time was responsible for the station, made the decision to shut down generation for the safety of the plant. He would have worked out the maths – shutting down more than 56,000 kw of generating plant at the then price of $35 per kw would cost more than $2 million, but it was a decision which had to be made. Within an hour of shutting down the station, the hillside gave way and a massive slip poured into the station, bursting doorways, windows and spilling onto the floors. At this point the concern was not just for the station but for lives, as news had filtered through of problems at the village. At 7.15am on 5 June the station was evacuated and all staff and families in the village were assembled at the school by 8 am. A civil emergency was declared for the Berwick area and the women and children from Waipori were evacuated by Red Cross and the army at 4 pm. The rain continued for two more days, pouring into Mahinerangi and making the clean up virtually impossible. Waipori had no water or sewerage and many of the men who remained to work at the power station had to sleep in makeshift conditions, as they had been forced out of their homes by the flood waters. It took months to move the mountains of mud, sludge and rock, which were up to two metres high, from in and around the power station. The most intricate machinery had to be stripped and cleaned of even the barest speck of dust and massive roading repairs were required. Families from the village were evacuated to Dunedin for 12 days and it was October before full generation was finally restored. (Information taken from “100 Years of Power 1907-2007” Trustpower)