Widespread Damage Caused By Storm

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29838, 2 June 1962, Page 12

Widespread Damage Caused By Storm

(New Zealand Press Association) i WELLINGTON, June 1. Lashed by a fast-moving storm, areas of central New Zealand presented a grim picture of devastation tonight. Although the peak of the storm has passed, the effects of a widespread deluge are by no means over.

At Wairau Pa, near Blenheim, 80 people were evacuated by boats late this afternoon as the storm-swollen Wairau river broke through stopbanks, threatening life and property. The nearby township of Spring Creek was also threatened with evacuation. In rich farming areas of the North Island —Whakatane, Rangitaiki, Tarawera —stock crammed the few still-open roads as farmers evacuated low-lying farms near swollen Bay of Plenty rivers. The township of Whakatane was also threatened by encroaching floodwaters.

Communications to many areas were completely severed during the storm as slips, rocks, and crashing trees blocked road and rail outlets and cut telephone and power lines Air service? in both islands were also disrupted, adding to the headaches of those wishing to travel during Queen’s Birthday weekend. Late tonight most communications in the North

Island were restored, although roads remained dangerous in many areas. A man was killed by a landslide while he was feeding fowls on his chicken farm at Ohope. Bay of Plenty He was: Frank Pay. aged 58, married. Wind-whipped waves on Lake Rotorua frothed to the fringe of the city’s business area. At New Plymouth, a slip

wrecked part of the city powerhouse. Hundreds of tons of clay ripped the front veranda from one house, banked up against another, and finally crashed' into the powerhouse. Several people miraculously escaped death and injury from the landslide. The power supply was not interrupted At Gisborne. 40-knot winds toppled the scaffolding from the city’s new two milliongallon reservoir.