A state of emergency has been declared in Kaikōura, with three rivers breaching their banks and residents being evacuated from low lying areas.

Kaikōura Mayor Craig Mackle told Chris Lynch Media the district moved quickly as conditions deteriorated on Tuesday morning.

“We’ve had a horrific amount of rain. The rivers were getting up and we knew things weren’t going to be good, so we probably broke a little bit of protocol there and declared before we’d been given the go ahead, and within half an hour it turned to custard.”

Evacuations from three areas were underway and Mackle hoped they were now complete.

Evacuees are being taken to Takahanga Marae, which can host up to 60 people, with the New Life Church able to take about 140 more and the Memorial Hall available as a further option.

Asked whether the evacuations were mandatory, the mayor was blunt.

“It’s get out, it’s coming, it’s on its way.”

The Kowhai River, the largest of the three to breach, was flowing across farmland including Mackle’s own property.

“It’s coming, ironically, through my farm, and it’s not moving that quick. The secondary bank seems to be coming around the end of that, but it will go.”

Rain was forecast to ease late in the evening, but Mackle said easing rain would not end the danger, with floodwater still working its way downstream.

“We’ve got the worst ahead of us.”

He said the event had all the marks of being bigger than the 1993 flood that swept through the town’s West End, particularly with two other rivers also breaching.

Emergency services had already pulled two people from a car on Inland Road on Tuesday morning. The pair had been working in the area and Mackle said they were very lucky.

His message to residents was simple: leave low lying areas if told to, and stay off the roads.

“There’s people everywhere. The roads are shut. Please don’t go driving around rubbernecking. We don’t want to be pulling people out of vehicles. It is not safe, there’s washouts happening.”