Oamaru woman stuck in house due to flooding after trying to evacuate her blind nephew

An Oamaru woman is stuck inside her sister's house due to flooding as she tried to help evacuate her two nephews - one who is blind and the other in a wheelchair.

Raylene Mulligan, a local of over 50 years, said she'd never seen flooding this severe.

At about 3am, Mulligan had driven to her sister's house in North Oamaru, hoping to evacuate her nephews.

However, she said she was now stuck there with them in the house, due to flooding outside.

"The front yard is knee high in water. So there's no way I could push a wheel-chair to even get to my truck."

She said with more warning from the council, she might have been able to get them out safely.

She said the State of Emergency declaration should have come hours earlier.

"Anxiety was pretty high to be honest."