“But that [early] one was worse because as well as pushing the Orowaiti up into that end of town the Buller River actually burst out and flowed directly into Westport – it came close to it this time but didn't quite get there.” Niwa was getting valuable data from the flood warning system set up recently with funding from the Government as one of the regional council's shovel-ready projects, Measures said. “This allows us to integrate our river-monitoring with weather forecasts and rainfall data and get projections as early as possible to the Emergency Management Centre ... it can only become more valuable with time, as we build up data and experience.”