At your household
Know where your household's water toby is so you can turn off water if required- Keep a snow shovel in an easy to access place - e.g coat cupboard or porch
- Keep a supply of salt to clear your paths
- If you know you have a fire hydrant outside your place feel free to expose it. You never know when the Fire Service are going to need access for emergencies
- Pipes can freeze in prolonged cold weather. Keep a water supply in an area where it will not freeze, and keep your jug full
- Check on your neighbours. They may require help clearing their accessway
- You might be without power for a while. Ensure you have an alternative source of cooking, heating and lighting
- Once roads are open, drive to the conditions. It will be icy and narrow. Lower your speed so you don't need to heavily apply the brakes
- Access to the cleared road from the household accessway is the residents' responsibility
Clearing snow from local roads
Snow clearance from roads takes place in the following order:
- Clear critical emergency services
- Clear commercial areas and expose fire hydrants
- Clear access to urban streets and schools including bus stops
- Widen intersections
- Urban streets cleared approximately one lane
- Clear rural roads including intersections
- Move back to urban area and widen streets and clear storm water drains and grates
- Widen rural roads
- Remove snow piles in commercial / critical care areas if forecast dictates snow will linger for a number of weeks
State highways
The following roads within the Mackenzie District are administered by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA):
- State Highway 8, Cave to Twizel
- State Highway 79, Fairlie to Geraldine
- State Highway 80, Pukaki to Mount Cook
Their 24 hour contact line is 0800 444 449 and highway website is journeys.nzta.govt.nz