Christchurch Mayor, Lianne Dalziel has authorised a region-wide Civil Defence emergency.
It comes after rain has hammered the region for the past 24 hours, causing flooding in a number of towns and regions in the area.
Three other councils, Ashburton, Timaru and Selwyn all declared a State of Emergency today. Rescues and road closures have eventuated and warnings have been put in place for people to avoid frolicking in floodwaters, due to concerns it could be contaminated by sewage.
The acting Minister of Emergency Management, Kris Faafoi says officials are closely monitoring river levels and while no evacuations have been ordered, people should be prepared.
Heavy rain is set to continue throughout the night and into tomorrow.
Faafoi says Dalziel's decision will mean the whole region can now offer resources to assist those towns affected by flooding.
Some locals in Canterbury has already evacuated. (Source: Other)
"That's going to help but obviously making sure that they watch river levels and making sure that people are prepared and looking out for messages from their local Civil Defence groups and Councils is extremely important," he says.
Faafoi says the Defence Force is also on standby in Ashburton should they need to be called in to assist to evacuate. Some 4,000 residents are on high-alert as evacuations may be ordered in the coming hours.
Mayor of Ashburton, Neil Brown says he's lived in the town all his life and has never seen river levels this high.
"We need it to stop raining to let those rivers drop," he said today.
Brown said if stopbanks broke on the northern side of the river about 1700 people would need to be evacuated. If it broke on the southern side, about 2200.
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