WEST COAST FLOODS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28513, 17 February 1958, Page 8

WEST COAST FLOODS

Slips In Town At Greymouth

(From Our Own Reporter)

GREYMOUTH, February 16. More than six inches of rain on Friday night and early Saturday morning again caused interruption to rail services to and from the West Coast to Canterbury, but these were resumed with a rail-car service this evening. Road communications from Greymouth to other centres were also cut by flooding and slips. In the residential area of Greymouth houses were fortunate to be spared severe damage when slips came down' from the hills on the eastern side of the town. Two slips occurred on the thickly clad bush slope above Mount street, .one a little before midnight, travelling 150 yards to end with a crash of rock, rubble, trees and bushes in the back Vards of houses. Two of the houses were immediately evacuated and further slips occurred during the night. In daylight it was found that one of the slips had piled up on top of the garage on Mr H. Musson’s property. The garage had been pushed out on to the roadway, but when it was jacked up the car inside was found to have suffered nothing more than a dented bonnet.

Fowlhouses on the neighbouring properties of Messrs K- Coll and J. \ Herring were parried away for a distance of several yards. Several other slips occurred on slopes above properties in streets further away from the centre of the town. Debris was piled against houses, lawns scooped out, fowlhouses and toolsheds carried away, and gardens ruined. Mr and Mrs J. Tunnell, of Paroa road, Karoro, were awakened by a sound like thunder to find the back wall of their sunporch stove in by a slip. Rubble to a depth of 10 feet had completely buried the garden. There were also numerous slips in country areas and the Midland railway line was blocked in several places. On Saturday, however, a railcar from Christchurch was able to get as far as Moana where it was met by a bus from Greymouth carrying passengers travelling to Christchurch. Houses in the Camerons area were invaded by water from the New river and the road to the south was again cut there. A big slip on Cobden Hill closed the Coast road for several hours on Saturday.

Although the Grey river did not rise a great deal because the rain was heaviest on the coast. Greymouth streets were flooded when the drainage system proved inadequate to cope wrth the runoff from the surrounding hills. Muddy water invaded some of shops in the central streets and patrons coming out of the picture theatre had io take off their shoes and stockings and wade knee deep or more through the sheet of water to their cars. Sawyers creek, which flows through the centre of the residential area of the town, rose rapidly during the night and between 3 and 4 a.m. on Saturday had reached a height greater than any during the past few months. Several houses in streets in the vicinity were completely surrounded. Repair gangs which had been busy since the last flooding a few weeks ago were rushed to new trouble spots and by Saturday afternoon roads had been restored.