Opotiki Flood Damage Estimated At £400,000

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 12

Opotiki Flood Damage Estimated At £400,000

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 13. The preliminary estimate of damage caused by the Opotiki floods was £400,000, said the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) today. He had just received an on-the-spot report from the Minister of Works (Mr Allen).

Mr Holyoake said the estimates were: for houses, £100,000; offices and shops, £100,000; streets and roads, £158,000; farm losses, £58,000.

“Damage is severe, with between 600 and 700 homes flooded, besides shops and offices,” Mr Holyoake said. Sewerage arrangements were still being checked. It was not certain they were unaffected.

The Health Department was taking all possible steps to prevent polution of the water supply. The Opotiki Dairy Company was using its tankers for the cartage of water. “As well, the Ministry of Works is on the job helping clean up the streets and homes. All roads are open with the exception of the Waioeka Gorge,” Mr Holyoake said. Mr Allen was staying overnight at Opotiki. The mood of Opotiki was generally optimistic today, but a number of shopkeepers were talking of closing down for good or re-opening on' a smaller scale to cut losses. Their pessimism was not shared by the leaders of the community, who all said that the extensive stopbanking scheme begun by the Poverty Bay Catchment Board just before Christmas would make the town safe from future flooding. The £68,000 scheme is not due for completion un|il 1965. Mr Allen, whose constituency includes Opotiki, took charge of relief and restoration work in an emergency headquarters set up in the Opotiki Borough Council offices. He will spend tomorrow morning in Opotiki again before inspecting flood damage in his home town of Whakatane. “Worst Ever” “This is the worst flood ever seen in Opotiki,” said Mr Allen. He said a work force of the ’ Ministry of Works had been brought in

to help the borough get on its feet again.

The Commissioner of Works (Mr J. T. Gilkison) surveyed the work to be done this morning.

The borough reservoir, which once held more than a million gallons of ■water, is now full of silt and useless. Opotiki Dairy Association milk tankers were still delivering water to the town today. The water mains are disrupted and the sewage system is out of order. The emergency meals station to St. Mary’s Hall is expected to have to continue issuing up to 500 meals a night for a week. A flood relief committee has been set up under Mr N. Hewitt, farms advisory officer at Whakatane.

Mr Allen said that Ministry of Works men were assisting elderly people, widows and invalids to restore their homes. The Mayor (Mr S. N. Chatfield) who was flooded out himself, said it would be at least a month before most people could reoccupy their homes. Few Escaped

Only 24 of the 700 houses in the borough escaped the floodwaters. Mr Chatfield said that his home was typical of most houses. Everything was sodden and practically nothing was serviceable. Of just on £9OOO worth of stock carried by Mr Chatfield’s drapery and menswear stores roughly £lOOO worth was left. This was common to all businesses to the town. “In fact some of them might be worse than that,” he said. Mr and Mrs Chatfield spent Wednesday night on top of a stack of hay bales.

Most businessmen are piling damaged stock into heaps while they wait for insurance assessors to reach the town. Many of them t were annoyed that the as- o sessors had not moved to as 1 soon as the floodwaters re- C ceded. They said the delay s was causing a hold-up in reconstruction work. 1 Earthquake and War Dam- s age Commission assessors f reached the town this even- 1 ing and more assessors are t due on Monday. The Mayor said there were a lot of un- 1 accountable losses such as s stock that was swept away t and now littered Waiotahi g Beach. i He said the stopbanks a along a length of the Otara \ river and a stretch of the Waioeka river below the f main road bridge, which the ( catchment board had built y since Christmas, saved the town from “total wipe out.” < Food Shortage ' A shortage of food and < clothing is the biggest prob- < lem facing Opotiki. Only one of the two bakers is < working. Opotiki’s four schools are < expected to remain closed for more than a week. King street, sealed 10 days < ago, had been scoured in 1 parts to a depth of three ! feet. . < Rising about 30 feet at its peak, the Waioeka river, on i its wild rampage towards < Opotiki, virtually destroyed I in hours what had taken 10 years to build. One of the biggest jobs was the cleaning up of carcases from the bacon factory. All butchers’ shops also had to be cleaned out. The weather in Opotiki town this morning was fine although there were still rain clouds on the hills behind the town. Last night the Red Cross i provided meals for people who could not use their i houses and for those engaged in cleaning up the damage. Held Baby A floating tree saved the life of a woman and her child when a power boat loaded with people was overturned at the height of the flood. Thrown Into the swirling water, the woman managed to hold her infant baby in one hand and grasped at the passing tree with her other hand. In this way she managed to keep afloat until help arrived and she and her child were hauled from the water unharmed. A man believed by many to be the luckiest person alive : in the town is Otara farmer Mr Terry Connor. He was trapped in Church street at the height of the flood for about one hour and a half ! and spent that time in a '■ shoulder-high swift current, 1 holding on to an open doorway. • The current in Church I street at the height of the ; flood was estimated to have [ been about 25 miles an hour. Police Car . Cans trapped in the Waii oeka garage included a police i car in which two prisoners . wer e being transported north, i Some of the occupants of i the trapped oars were brought back to Gisborne yesterday, t climbing over slips to reach j transport which had gone as . far as possible into the gorge. , These included the prisoners, i One policeman stayed behind c to guard the police car. Th e main Opotiki-Gisborne road, via Waioeka gorge, j would be impassable to motor B traffic for two or three days, t an Automobile Association 1 (Auckland) officer said today. Stock Losses s Stock losses in the Opotiki - district have been placed at e provisionally 1200 sheep and 200 head of cattle. The - Whakatane and Waimana - areas virtually escaped loss. So far, no estimate of the acreage affected can be given a as the water is still moving - to places. s The damage in Waimana >• looks particularly bad. Silt a has been spread unevenly over many farms, and along the riverbanks timber has piled up which will have to be removed before sowing is undertaken. In some cases the entire farm has been covered in silt, in places up to 2ft deep and it has piled up to snowdrift fashion.