CLOUDBURST OVER TIMARU

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27641, 23 April 1955, Page 6

CLOUDBURST OVER TIMARU

Firemen Pump Water From Shop

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO STOCKS

Fire engines were called out in Timaru yesterday morning to pump dry the flooded floor of at least one large shop on Stafford street, the main street of the city. An overnight cloudburst drenched the city with nearly 2in of rain in about two hours and Stafford street was turned into a swirling river of silt-laden water. Hundreds of pounds worth of damage was done to stock in many shops, but an accurate estimate will not be available until the mess has been cleared. Shop assistants spent most of the day in gumboots mopping up deep pools of water and moving the soaking wreckage of carpets, cloth and stock. At Saltwater Creek, a short distance outside Timaru, water rose above the banks and flooded low-lying houses for a short time. The water was not very deep and did not lie long. Nowhere else in the South Island was there any rain as heavy as that at Timaru. Christchurch had the next heaviest total—.2o inches—and few Christchurch residents would say there had been enough to satisfy their parched gardens. Timaru’s fall appears to have been an isolated cloudburst. It was the heaviest there since December. 1954, when 2.14 in fell in 24 hours. Yesterday’s total was 1.99 in between about midnight and 2.30 a.m. By noon yesterday most of the visible damage to Timaru shops had been repaired or cleared away, but staffs will be kept busy throughout the week-end lifting carpets and linoleum and drying floors. In many cases an accurate assessment of the damage will be difficult until this has been done. Valuable stocks in most shops were on raised platforms and so escaped the flood which poured in under the doors, but in one shop nearly two dozen bolts of fabric—stored temporarily on the floor—suffered, badly. Saltwater Creek Flooding Flooding on the lower levels of Saltwater Creek caused residents some concern, biit the water quickly subsided. Last evening the Southern Ratepayers’ Association called a meeting to discuss the flooding in this area. After waiting nearly an hour and finding only six residents had appeared the president (Mr J. G. Leckie) abandoned the meeting. Surrounding areas reported very little or no rain during yesterday or Thursday. In Christchurch .18in fell yesterday morning and a further .2in during the afternoon. Rangiora had no rain, although a very fine mist filled the air for most of the morning. At Ashburton last evening the weather was fine and clear. A little rain fell during the early morning and again between 10.30 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Geraldine has had frosts only in the last two days. Last evening it was reported there that rain was needed, but that none had fallen, apart from a light shower on Wednesday night. At Fairlie the weather has been dull and cold with only a very light shower to dampen the parched countryside. Waimate had no rain yesterday although it daught the edge of the Timaru downfall late on Thursday night. Rain in thte North Island was fairly widespread with the highest fall reported at Tauranga—2.sBin in the 24 hours up to 9 a.m t yesterday. At Gisborne a fall of 1.35 in was recorded and other east coast areas received similar falls.