FLOOD THREAT RENEWED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29315, 21 September 1960, Page 17

FLOOD THREAT RENEWED

< Raining Again On Hauraki Plain

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 20. Rain hung around the upper Hauraki Plains from mid-after-noon today, threatening to check a gradual fall in flood levels which began in the big ponding areas behind Ngatea and Kerepehi. At 8 p.m. it was raining steadily again in Ngatea, the centre of the big area of farmland which will go under water if the ponding or a stopbank give way. There was no let-up in intensive efforts to consolidate the banks and check seepage points which could weaken them sufficiently to cause a breakthrough. Now the district is braced for tomorrow’s big drive against the twin threat of further rain and the peak spring tide. Several hundred men from the Army, Air Force, Ministry of Works, and county council and local farmers are working in shifts throughout the flood area. Many farmers are milking their cows evening and morning and managing all-night vigils on the stopbanks in between. Sleep is at a premium for most. Big black rain clouds from the south brought heavy rain to Paeroa about 3 p.m. and spread their load over a good part of the plain. A large gang of Ministry of Works men finished placing sandbags in the gap in the Komata stream stopbank, north of Paeroa. where it had broken at the end of last week close to its junction with the Waihou river.

Thousands of bags have been placed there, brought in 60-ton barge loads about half a mile downstream from the Waihou bridge on the Paeroa-Ngatea highway. Men have operated human chains to build up the wall in the gap. Now bulldozers will consolidate it. scraping up dirt and clay behind. In the town and surrounding district accommodation is fully taxed. Army men are sleeping in the local hall. Others are in hotels at Paeroa while some Hauraki Catchment Board men are coming from as far as Te Aroha to do shifts of 12 hours and more.