A mayor’s decision whether to flood his own city

The storms hit Wellington this Monday morning. As Hutt City’s mayor came over the top of the Wainuiomata Hill Road at 7am on his way to work, he found traffic stopped by a car that had hit a slip and spun out. Roads were closed and homes lost power as about 50mm of rain pounded the region.
Campbell Barry looked out over the valley at the flooded Hutt River and Waiwhetu Stream. “And I thought to myself, is today going to be the day? We are the most densely populated floodplain in New Zealand. If the Hutt River was to break its banks, it would be billions of dollars damage to property and obviously put human life at risk.”