Rārangi Surf Life Saving Club SAR squad rescues holiday park residents from Blenheim floodwaters
As the Marlborough region took a battering from heavy rain and strong winds on the evening of Tuesday 7 July, volunteer surf lifeguards from Rārangi Surf Life Saving Club were called into action. With parts of State Highway 1 closed due to flooding, and with some communities cut off by damaged bridges and high flood waters, the Rārangi Search and Rescue (SAR) squad was activated by Police, and its Swift Water Response team were at the ready to launch their inflatable rescue boats into floodwaters to help support their local community – including being called on to evacuate residents trapped at a Blenheim holiday park.
Police called on the club's SAR squad just after 8pm, as the Ōpaoa River burst its banks and flooded the low-lying Bridges Holiday Park on Grove Road. Residents living in caravans at the park had become stranded as the water rose, in what one long-time resident described as the worst flooding he had seen in his nine years there.
Rārangi's SAR coordinator Brendon Ferguson responded with a team of four, towing an inflatable rescue boat (IRB) to the scene, with a second boat on standby a short drive away if needed. By around 8:55pm the crew had launched, with one driver and two crew aboard, and began working methodically through the flooded park, going caravan to caravan to reach those cut off by the water. The rain had eased by that point, but some parts of the river were moving very quickly, and the water was a metre to a metre and a half deep at the holiday park – littered with floating objects like pot plants, picnic tables, and even barbeques.
For the residents, the sight of the boat was a welcome one. The SAR squad’s capability to operate at night was limited, so local Fire crews had lined their engines near Ōpaoa Bridge with floodlights, scanning the water – “it was like daylight” – when the SAR squad made their way in.
As one evacuee, Steve Gorman, recalled, the crew went door to door: "all the caravans that were left they were knocking on, all in the rubber ducky."
Over the next two hours, the team ferried residents to safety in stages, before the operation was stood down later that evening once Police confirmed everyone was accounted for. No injuries were reported, and evacuated residents spent the night in the motel section of the holiday park, on higher ground.
For Brendon and his team, it was “quite uncanny” that the response occurred on that day, as they had organised a month prior to hold a joint training session with the local Police SAR unit.
“It was a weird coincidence,” says Brendon. “We had just met with Police SAR that morning for a training exercise – we’d taken them through our gear shed and shown them all our SAR equipment. Of course, with the weather warnings, we had double-checked the availability of our squad members, and all the gear was primed and ready.
“I’d been in at the Emergency Management Centre earlier in the day as well to off our support, and then got a call from one of our crew that we might be needed. Then, I got another call from the local Police SAR Sargent to let me know there was a job coming our way. It showed how important those relationships are.
“I don’t think we could have been any better prepared for what was to come.”
With all residents safely evacuated, the squad loaded its IRB back onto the trailer and returned to base, packing up for the night by around 10:50pm.
The rescue is a reminder that the work of surf lifeguards extends well beyond the beach and the summer patrol season. Rārangi's volunteers are part of a wider Search and Rescue network that can be called on year-round to support Police and other emergency services when communities are put at risk.
For the residents of Bridges Holiday Park, the clean-up will take far longer than the rescue. Many face weeks of drying out and repairing water-damaged caravans, while some may be beyond repair. But thanks to a quick response from the Rārangi SAR squad, everyone made it out of the floodwaters safely.