FLOOD DAMAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 18

FLOOD DAMAGE.

EAST COAST AREA.

SILT-COVERED LAND.

WATER NOW RECEDING. (From Our Correspondent.) HASTINGS, Tuesday. Damage running to many thousands >f pounds has been caused in the Hawke's Bay district by floods which accompanied three days of rain. The flood waters are receding, but farm lands in many localities continue to be swept by a yellow tide. The main Napier-Hastings road is still under 2ft of water, and is impassable to cars. In Clive many residences are still unfit for occupation. Stock losses are now known to be severe in many localities, and there are reports that individual farmers have lost. •>OO to 1000 ahppp. Traffic Bridge Buckled. Another large concrete traffic bridge, this time at Pntnngntn. has buckled. It is understood that the bridge has collapsed in the same way as the Waitangi bridge, between Hastings and Napier, did on Monday afternoon, the centre spans subsiding. Large gangs were set to work by the Public Works Department and the Hawke's Bay County Council to-day clearing slips on roads leading out from Napier, but the amount of debris to be moved is so large that progress is slow.

The Napier-Wairoa road from Bay View is still completely blocked by the destruction of part of a bridge across the Esk River.

During the day some of the residents of the Bay View and Eskdale districts returned to their homes, but many houses in the low-lying areas are still surrounded by water and untenantable. Almost the whole of the Esk Valley is covered with silt several feet deep. Over most of the area the silt is as high as the fences.

Gangs of telegraph and power line men were out all day, but they were unable to get far beyond Tlay View.

Plight of Wairoa. Reports from Wairoa state that that town is practically isolated as a result of a railway stoppage and the loss of bridges and numerous slips on main highways. Washouts are reported on the railway line between Wairoa and Napier, and the large tunnel through the Mohaka hill is blocked at the northern end. Two spans of the upper Mohaka bridge, near the viaduct, have been swept away. Traffic to Napier may have to make use of the Mohaka' railway viaduct until the bridge in temporarily restored. Urge Drain Overflows. Portions of the outskirts of Wairoa were flooded through the overflow of a large drain, but this morning all the flood water in the town had disappeared. Many residences were surrounded by flood waters on the northern side of the township, and the occupants had to leave. Heavy losses of stock, particularly slieep, are reported. The Waikaremoana-Rotorua highway is blocked by heavy slips in the Ohuka Gorge. The main highways to fiisborne are also blocked via Tiniroto and Morere, while slips are numerous in all other parts of the district. Communications are cut off with Kopuawhara. Settlers state that the conditions are almost as bad as when the disaster occurred in February.