State of emergency lifted in Queenstown
Queenstown's local state of emergency, declared on Friday morning after a severe weather event, has been lifted.
However, the emergency operation centre will continue to operate and some restrictions will remain in place to protect public safety as the focus turns to recovery.
Mayor Glyn Lewers and Minister for Emergency Management Hon Kieran McAnulty, in Queenstown yesterday, thanked the local community for their resilience after a severe weather event at the end of last week, and praised all those involved in the response for their efforts.
“I’m pleased to confirm that the local state of emergency was lifted at 3pm this afternoon [Saturday] and Queenstown is open for business. The skies are clear, the weather forecast is fine and there’s fresh snow on the mountains,” Lewers says.
"Most importantly, I’d like to acknowledge and thank the people who have been managing our collective response.
"From the QLDC team to civil defence, emergency responders and contractors it has been a truly collaborative effort with many people working through the day and night to respond to a quickly-evolving situation.
"There is still work to be done but the impacted areas are contained and we’re now able to transition to recovery."
A priority will be restoration work at Queenstown Cemetery. Around one third of the cemetery has been affected by slips caused by heavy rain and the whole cemetery remains closed to ensure public safety.
QLDC’s Parks and Reserves team which manages cemeteries in the district is continuing to assess the area and contacting families of damaged graves personally to offer reassurance. They are endeavouring to reopen most of the cemetery in the coming days.
There is currently no public access to Queenstown Cemetery for safety reasons.
"We appreciate the distress this is likely to be causing to those friends and family members affected and we will provide further updates to the community as soon as we possibly can," a council spokesperson says.
Building inspections have been completed in a localised area of Reavers Lane. Ten properties were initially red-stickered and two properties yellow stickered but all 55 residents evacuated into temporary accommodation have been allowed to return home. Three buildings are still yellow-stickered but these are either non-residential properties or not currently occupied. None are now red-stickered.
All roads and streets in the centre of Queenstown have reopened. Elsewhere in the district, SH6 between Makarora and Haast, Tobins Track and the backcountry Von Road remain closed.
Some tracks (including Frankton Track), trails and reserves across the district also remain fully or partially closed. Please observe all signage.
Skyline Queenstown will be open for business today morning after a health and safety assessment was provided to QLDC this afternoon. Access to the gondola will be restricted to visitors to the Skyline facilities, and the mountain bike uplift service will not be available until further notice.
The mountain biking tracks in the Ben Lomond Reserve, including the Queenstown Mountain Bike Park, are closed to the general public.
Riders should not attempt to access the trails either by gondola or other means. Health and safety assessments of the trail network are required so that a plan of action can be implemented, and the mountain bike tracks opened. Specific updates will be provided in the coming days.
A further general update on the will be provided today.
