River levels have dropped around Feilding, but the saturated soil around the town means authorities are still on high alert for potential flooding.
Surface flooding hit the Manawatū town on Monday after it received almost as much rain in a matter of hours - 78mm - as it normally would in a month.
Floodgates were closed to prevent a worse outcome, with rivers and streams completely full after a week of bad weather. Another 16mm had fallen by midday on Thursday.
"We will be keeping a close eye on the situation this morning as to date the weather has been somewhat unpredictable and changing very quickly," said Horizons Regional Council incident controller Craig Grant.
"The key rivers that we're watching are the Makino, Manawatū, Mangaone and Matarawa. Overall, our major river systems are coping as we'd expect however, all our catchments are saturated and it won’t take much to put pressure on them."
Floodgates at Makino will stay closed to divert water away from Feilding, whilst those on the Manawatū River - which runs through Palmerston North - are remaining shut as its level is presently receding, but may be opened at some point if that changes.
Horizons emergency staff will be taking a look at water infrastructure on Thursday to check for damage - already they know of stopbank damage downstream from Feilding, and flooding at the Halcombe wastewater treatment plant.
"This is a timely reminder for people to treat floodwaters as contaminated and stay out of them," said Grant.
"With the rain forecasted today there may be some more surface flooding however this is due to localised rainfall overwhelming stormwater networks rather than flooding from rivers and streams. We recommend taking extra care when driving and to not head out on any sightseeing trips."
Earlier on Thursday there was flooding in and around Christchurch.
