As a result of torrential rain in the hills around Blue Mountains and Pinehaven the HVFP unit was responded to the Pinehaven area on the evening of Thursday 23 July, to assist with road closures due to slips and flood waters.

The Unit ended up with two scenes to protect. One, a slip, on Blue Mountains Road and the second, a road closure on Sunbrae Drive due to flooding.

The first scene on Blue Mountains Road required a shunt to be put in place due to the slip closing one lane.

The second in Sunbrae Drive, due to flooding, required a complete road closure at both ends. This was initially necessary due to the depth of water in to separate locations being at vehicle bonnet level and then as the water receded to prevent damage to property on either side of the road from bow waves caused by vehicles as they moved move through the flood waters.

The unit was stretched for manpower at this call due to a number of the Unit's members, who were responding from south of Stokes Valley, not being able to access the scene due to road closures. SH2 (River Rd) and SH 58 (Haywards) were closed due to slips and Eastern Hutt Rd was closed due to Flooding.

One of our members who was caught in the traffic hold up on Eastern Hutt road ended up assisting the NZ Police with traffic control at the Stokes Valley roundabout for an hour or so.

As a result of the weather a joint exercise with Stokes Valley and Silvertream Fire Brigades plus the HVFP Unit was cancelled.

-- SSO David Ackroyd