DAMAGE DONE BY CLOUDBURST

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22906, 30 December 1939, Page 10

DAMAGE DONE BY CLOUDBURST

CAMPERS’ PRIVATIONS AT ORONGORONGO t TREMENDOUS EXTENT OF SLIPS ROADS BURIED IN MANY PLACES [THE PRESS Special Service] WELLINGTON, December 29. A story of the cloudburst and slips at Orongorongo was brought to Petone to-day by a camper, Mr B. Durrant, of Korokoro, who lost his car and suffered privations throughout the heavy rainfall of Tuesday night. He described scenes of desolation round the Riddiford station homestead which was wrecked by the tremendous slide of earth and rock. “You can have no idea of what happened,” he said. “The whole configuration of the country has been altered. My companion, V. Radcliffe, and I arrived at the Riddiford homestead about 4 p.m. on Tuesday intending to spend a few days shooting and fishing. “We turned along the coast road, and about a mile and a half further on decided, as the going was somewhat rough, to leave the car. I chose what appeared to be an absolutely safe place in which to park a car, avoiding leaving it under any cliff faces for fear t’.at rocks might fall on it. “The place where it was left was at the foot of a comparatively gentle slope and no one would dream it could come to any harm. We then proceeded some distance further on and pitched our tent in a pleasant grove of karaka trees on a gentle slope about 30 yards from a stream, which was then a tiny trickle. About 9 p.m. it began to rain and soon the water was coming down in torrents. At midnight there must have been a cloudburst. Water was soon pouring through our tent and we'were wet through. Slip Down Hillside “At 1 a.m. with a tremendous roar a slip occurred, and in the morning we saw that hundreds of thousands of tons of earth and rocks had slipped down the hillside a few yards away from our tent. The slip was a quarter of a mile high and the same distance across. “We dare not move till daylight as we had no idea of *khat had happened, but just hung on to our tent till morning. Daylight revealed a scene of absolute desolation. Prac-

tically the who]e of the coast road was buried under from 50 to 60 slips and the strange thing was that it was not the cliff faces that came away but whole hillsides of gentle slopes which everyone considered perfectly safe. We knew that three other young men were camped in a cave about a mile further on, and we thought they would have weathered the storm and we would get a cup of tea. # When we got there we found that there was three feet of water in the cave, and like ourselves the campers had not been able to get u hot drink. Returning to our tent we packed what \ye could, and leaving the tent standing made for Barney’s where, a scout hut.

“There we found R. Nelson and S. Jaeger, who were camping there. The whare was flooded out and the food which they had placed in what was thought to be a safe place some distance from the whare was washed away. Hovever, we were able to get a cup of tea. “We thought that our worries were now over and set out to get the car. On the way along we picked up three young men who had been in the cave. The whole of the slope, above the car, however, had slipped down and the car was half covered, some of the rocks round it being more than 10 feet in diameter, “When we got there the slip was still moving, and as we watched we saw the car gracUaally covered till only the roof was showing. There I am afraid the car will have to remain, as even if it could be uncovered huge rocks and debris are lying for hundreds of yards round .it. We then tramped round to Mr Riddiford’s house, where we were met by a scene of absolute desolation, No one could have conceived that such a thing could have happened. There are no big hills i/n----mediately behind Mr Riddiford’s ' house, but the slope behind crashed into the rear of the house, the floors of which were covered deep with mud, rocks, and water. One of the inmates in the early morning had attempted to open the back door, and when he succeeded he was swept back through three rooms by an inrush of water and mud. The walls of the house had to be hacked away to let out the water.” “Grounds Disappeared” Mr Durrant said that until the flood waters drain away it will be impossible to -say how the founda-