Flooding was present in some areas of Thames this morning after Cyclone Gabrielle lashed the town last night.
Rhodes Park and the nearby Thames Pony Club were underwater with patches of floodwater on Ngati Maru Highway between Thames and Kōpū – which is open with traffic management in place.
The Kauaeranga Valley Rd remains closed due to flooding.
Thames Pony Club president Katherine Forsyth said the club had experienced flooding like never before.
“We did actually have to rescue some horses at 4am this morning,” she said.
There were seven horses on the stopbank overnight and we had already moved some of the others to other grazing early this morning.”
Katherine said there was a “big repair job” ahead for the club.
“All the horses that have gone to other grazing, they’ll need to stay there for quite some time,” she said.
“We can’t do anything until the flood waters have receded and then we’ll gradually go through each paddock and fix everything as we go.”
Thames Rugby and Sports Club president Steve Gooder told The Profile the flooding had caused damage to the clubrooms.
“[The water was] up above a metre through the clubrooms, up on the higher part of the clubrooms where it’s never been before,” he said.
“We’ll just get it cleaned up, hose all the silt out from inside and hopefully it dries and hopefully we don’t get anymore rain.”
Mr Gooder said he also took two of the club vans to the nearby BP last night to protect them from floodwaters streaming in during high tide.
