The Ashburton mayor and farmers in the area are pleading for money from the Government to help mitigate damage from frequent climate change-driven events.
Another major storm has hit various parts of the South Island cutting power, damaging roads, bridges and properties, and cutting off entire settlements.
Roads turned to rivers in Otematata and evacuations overnight in Omarama.
Heavy rain has caused floodwaters to sweep through the Waitaki region.
"There was a lot of surface flooding which actually came down from the hills and basically inundated both the townships in low-lying parts," Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said.
The holiday park was also evacuated, and entire farms and the town of Lake Ōhau were cut off after a bridge was washed out.
A large clean-up is now underway.
"Well, there's certainly some clean-up from slips and so on, rocks, going on to the roads. And they'll be needing to check just how sodden those hillsides are to make sure that there's not going to be any further problems," Kircher said.
Beekeeper Brett Smith's Otematata property was completely underwater. He spent the morning trying to save his beehives.
"We're pretty much isolated at the moment," he said. "We can't get down the road and we can't get up to Twizel so the Waitaki area there'll be quite a bit of clean up I think."
Rivers across the South Island surged and rose as the rain continued to fall and flow down from the high country.
It's rising river levels like in Ashburton that are causing damage to parts of the South Island. They are breaching their banks causing damage to farmland, roads and bridges, and authorities are keeping a very close eye on these as the day progresses.
"The Rangitata, the Ashburton and the Rakaia are running very high at the moment," Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown said.
Tuesday's rain came after significant wind on Monday which damaged houses, closed roads and cut off power.
"The last 24 hours in Canterbury's been pretty tumultuous," Brown said.
There have been a number of significant events in Canterbury and across the South since the big Ashburton floods in May last year.
"It's always on tenterhooks when this happens, but watching the river flows, getting information coming in, it wasn't a nice feeling," Brown said.
Climate change is already having a big impact and those in the area say the Government needs to step in, and now.
"Not happening fast enough," Brown said.
"We have sent a report to Government and we are asking for co-funding to sort this problem out. The talkings over, we are asking for them to do something."
But this event isn't over yet, with rivers still rising and Civil Defence expecting the full impacts to take another six to 12 hours.
And more treacherous weather is due later in the week.
