HEAVY RAIN AT HERMITAGE

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

HEAVY RAIN AT HERMITAGE

12 INCHES IN 24 HOURS

From Our Own Reporter TIMARU, February 23. The Hermitage, Mount Cook, is again cut off by road after heavy rain during the last 24 hours. At 1 p.m. to-day nearly 12in of rain had fallen since yesterday afternoon. Three buses which were to have left this morning for Christchurch, Oamaru, and Queenstown stayed at the Hermitage after a survey of the road had shown Black Birch creek, two miles from the Hermitage, to be impassable. Subsequent reports showed that streams called the Worryline and the Twins, on the road from Mount Cook to Lake Pukaki, were impassable. Mr E. D. Kalaugher, resident engineer at Lake Pukaki, said that it was possible that the road had been blocked at other points. A tractor and a bulldozer had been dispatched by the Public Works Department to make repairs, he said. He expected the lake level to rise considerably. The Tasman river, which feeds into the lake, had risen spectacularly between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. to-day, ne said.

The rain was aggravating the water nuisance at the scene of the construction, said Mr Kalaugher, but did not threaten damage. As the result of a heavy rain a week ago work had been held up for half a day. This time a delay of two days was anticipated, he said.