Burst water pipe floods Rangiora’s High St

Shoppers on Rangiora’s High St had to quickly find high ground as a torrent of brown water swept along the street on Tuesday.

The culprit was a burst water main on the footpath outside 154 High St (Fi’s Flowers n’ Art) shortly after noon.

"I was standing outside chatting with customers when there was a noise and water started bursting up from the edge of the footpath," said owner Fi Sidey.

"It got bigger and bigger very quickly so we all rushed back inside the shop."

Next door at Gather and You, Natalia Baker said she heard a sudden whooshing sound and when she looked outside she saw all the water coming her way.

"There was a lot of water very quickly, but it was soon heading down the footpath and out on to the road towards the eastern end of High St and away from us, so we were lucky."

Natalia called the Waimakariri District Council, warning it of the impending flood event and then called the fire brigade to see if they could do anything about shutting the water off.

"It will be a bit of a drain on our sales for today. Everyone along here has lost business but these things happen and you have to smile as there was no damage to our shop, stock or customers," she said.

"What was of note was the fact that within minutes of it happening, the council’s engineers were here, looking at things, then they shut off the water and brought in the cleaning staff. ‘‘That was awesome, they have done a great job," she said.

The burst water pipe quickly flooded the northern side of the road depositing rocks, silt and mud all along the footpath mainly between Percival and Victoria Sts and further towards the Ashley St intersection.

Some water even washed over to the other side of the street at the Victoria St crossing point, the silt making the corner treacherous until Corde staff cleaned it away..

Natalia said it took everyone by surprise, but she still managed a smile later watching an older lady on a ride-on scooter powering her through the torrent of water.

"She just had to get through it."

A council spokesperson said retailers on High St alerted the council to the issue at around midday.

"The council water team arrived on site within 10 minutes and quickly shut the water off.

"Staff from council’s nearby building helped close off the street, and diverted the traffic away from High St."

He said within minutes the water unit and three waters engineers were focused on fixing the issue — a burst water pipe — and organising clean up and hopefully a reopening of High St later in the afternoon.

"It’s been a fast response. But this is something we practice for things like this as well as Civil Defence scenarios.’’

Once the water had subsided, council staff were on-site very quickly with street cleaners clearing away the mud and debris, and a digger was excavating the burst main site.

Karen Robinson, shop manager for Street Legal, along High St from the burst main, said despite the water entering the front of her shop on the Good St corner, no stock was damaged.

"We could see the water coming towards us along the footpath so we quickly moved everything away from the doors.

"Now all we have to do is clean the floor and it’s business as usual."