RAPID RISE IN GREY RIVER

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25737, 24 February 1949, Page 4

RAPID RISE IN GREY RIVER

LOSSES OF STOCK REPORTED From Our Own Reporter

GREYMOUTH, February 23. Fed by heavy rains in the back country, the Grey river rose rapidly this afternoon and was within two feet of the top of Greymouth wharf at high tide at 9 p.m. The river rose rapidly from noon, and the run increased from five knots in the morning to 11 or 12 knots at 8 p.m. Residents watched the river rise steadily in the evening, but the rate of rise decreased gradually after 6 p.m. as the flood waters spread over an increasingly wide area until in an hour, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., the rate had decreased to three inches. The West Coast was isolated to-day from the east coast except by rail and via the north end of the South Island. Both the Otira and the Lewis Pass roads were blocked by slips and washouts as a result of the northerly storm which raged on the West Coast last night and again to-day. Nine inches of rain fell at Otira in 24 hours, and other falls varied between 2.87 inches at Reefton to 1.9 inches at Greymouth. After midday the weather cleared in the area near the headwaters of the Grey river, and this probably saved the town from a major flood. Reports from country districts state that there was a rapid rise in all streams feeding the Grey river. At Kamaka, where one settler estimated that the river was at its highest flood level since 1936, the Grey river rose two feet in an hour between 4 and 5 p.m., but after that the rate slackened considerably. Some losses of stock are reported, including mote than 100 sheep by a settler in the Taramakau district south of Greymouth. Most farmers managed to get their stock to safety. Seven head of cattle were carried from an island in the Grey river near Omoto and were swept down the river this evening, but five managed to clamber up the rocks to safety. Swept downstream about 150 yards when their flat-bottomed boat capsized, two Cobden residents had an anxious few minutes about 4 p.m. today clinging to their boat in the Cobden lagoon until they found safety on a shingle bank. A launch in the Cobden lagoon was struck by a large tree coming downstream. Its mooring rope broke and the launch was swept downstream in the lagoon with the owner and two others in a flat-bottomed boat racing to cut it off before it reached the main stream. The launch was caught in the tidal waters and was swept to the shelter of a shingle bank Where it was moored safely. Two ships in port, the Matthew Flinders and the Puriri, had all available mooring lines in use to-day, and the Matthew Flinders’ engines were turning over slowly to counteract the effect of the flood.

Heavy logs and debris came down the river all day and the Puriri’s engines were not used in case the screws became fouled by the logs. Two ships, the Kiwitea and the Rata, arrived in the roadstead last night but had to remain there because of rough seas on the bar and a five-knot run in the river this morning.

Low-lying areas in Greymouth were flooded this evening, with water in Arney street a foot deep in places. On the Greymouth-Runanga road there was two feet of water this evening. The main road north via Stillwater was impassable to traffic about three-quarters of a mile on the Greymouth side of Stillwater where theie was water over the road to a depth of four to five feet.