Orange Heavy Rain Warning

Metservice has issued an orange heavy rain warning for our district and is valid until 5am Tuesday morning 28 October. We can expect 60 to 90 mm of rain, especially about the ranges. Thunderstorms possible. Peak rates of 15 to 25 mm/h expected Monday evening and overnight Monday. May upgradie to a Red Warning. Read more here

Our district has recently been impacted by flooding and slips. Read more about our affected local roads.  Read more
Labour Day - Council and Facilities

Several of our facilities will be closed for Labour Day on Monday 27 October 2025. See the list here.

Earthquake scenario tests Western Waikato Civil Defence teams

13 Jun 2024, 10:37 AM

 

The three councils covering the Western Waikato - Waitomo District Council, Ōtorohanga District Council and Waipā District Council – joined forces last week to undertake an exercise in how we would respond during a Civil Defence emergency. 

Similar to the national exercise programme ‘Ru Whenua’ being conducted by NEMA today, our teams recently set up an Emergency Operations Centre based at Ōtorohanga District Council to simulate our response to a severe earthquake.

The exercise provided the opportunity for the three councils, and sub-regional and local emergency organisations to work collectively on the response, with Waikato Region Civil Defence staff observing.

"An opportunity to test our response to a significant disaster is valuable, and we always take learnings from them in order to be better prepared, if and when the real one does happen in the future,” says Civil Defence Controller Dave Simes.

More information on the nationwide exercise can be found here