Rivers Fall After Flooding

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31278, 26 January 1967, Page 1

Rivers Fall After Flooding

The Rakaia and Waimakariri rivers were in flood yesterday after heavy rain in the Southern Alps, but the North Canterbury Catchment Board had no reports of damage to property. The photograph shows the Waimakariri river rushing through the twin bridges being built as part of the northern motorway. The Rakaia river rose more than 10ft above normal at the gorge bridges and reached its peak at 14ft 3in at 2 a.m.

yesterday. The flood was at its height at the Rakaia mouth shortly after noon after cutting a new mouth to the sea. By 4 p.m. the Rakaia had dropped 4ft at the gorge bridges. Mr E. B. Dalmer, the chief engineer of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, said the only access to beach houses on the south side of the Rakaia mouth was by tractor. Car traffic was blocked by more than 2ft of water. Mr Dalmer said that the rainfall at Arthur’s Pass for the 24 hours to 8 a.m. yesterday was nearly 7in. The Waimakariri-rose 6ft

above normal at the gorge bridge, where the peak was reached at 11 a.m. By 5 p.m. the river had fallen 2ft at the gorge. The flood reached its peak at the main road bridges at 6.30 p.m., when the river was sft above normal. An unstable westerly flow over the South Island brought isolated showers and thunderstorms to North Otago and Canterbury yesterday afternoon. Shortly before 3 p.m. black clouds loomed up over Christchurch from the west, and there were loud peals of thunder for 10 to 15 mintites be-

fore the storm moved out to sea.

The weather office at Christchurch airport said the ceiling of the storm cloud was very high at 30,000 to 40,000 ft. The base of the cloud was about 3000 ft. There were reports of thunderstorms at Oamaru, Timaru, and Ashburton.

The rain which fell at the airport during the thunder was not measurable, but it was heavy from the Burnside area to the city for about 10 minutes. No flooding was reported. Only a few drops of rain fell at Sumner and Redcliffs, but there was hail in the Shirley-Aranui area.