Recent Snow Storm Will Make History

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31560, 23 December 1967, Page 8

Recent Snow Storm Will Make History

There is every reason to believe that last month’s snowfall in the high country of the Mackenzie Country and Mid-Canterbury will go down in history.

Snow lay to a depth of 4ft to sft in some of the worst affected areas and stock were snowbound for a week to two weeks.

On the basis of the records of his father and grandfather, Mr A. A. Urquhart, of Erewhon station, in the headwaters of the Rangitata river, says that the snow has not been so deep on this country at any time of the year since 1880.

The chairman of the high country disaster relief committee which has been formed in the affected area, Mr D. G. Reynolds, of Fairlie, says the last out-of-season snowfall occurred at about the same time of the year in 1918, but the snow then was only half of the depth of the recent fall.

At this stage it is still difficult to assess the full impact of the storm. Stock were already out on summer country when the fall came and it will not be until the autumn muster in April, or even May, before final tallies of losses are available. Stock Loss But in the meantime it is estimated that in Waitaki, Mackenzie, Geraldine, and Ashburton counties up to 40,000 sheep and 200 cattle may have died in the storm or as a result of the storm. These stock could be worth about $170,000. In addition there has been widespread damage to fences. It is estimated that up to 100 miles of fences are completely destroyed or partially damaged. There has also been extensive damage to haybarns, implement sheds, woolsheds and motor garages. Steel framed buildings fared particularly badly in this storm. On the lower country it has been estimated that yields of cereal crops could be reduced by about 75,000 bushels due to a number of factors emanating from the storm, and this loss could be of the order of $lOO,OOO. Taking into account the future productive potential of stock which have been lost in the storm, and also the reduced production expected from stock which have survived the storm but have still been affected by it, it is believed that the total cost of the storm could be close to $700,000. Mr Reynolds says that the storm could hardly have come

at a worse time with ewes right in the thick of lambing in the affected areas. There could, however, been even heavier losses of ewes from sleepy sickness, he said, if the storm had come two to three weeks earlier when ewes were on the point of lambing. In his latest review of conditions of crops and pastures in Canterbury for November, the fields superintendent of the Department of Agriculture, Mr A. R. Dingwall, says that the disturbing aspect of sheep losses is that the greatest percentage of the animals lost were ewes and lambs. Thus many runs were faced with considerably depleted breeding flocks and replacements, and in view of the inherent difficulty of replacing breeding stock, other than by local breeding, it might take anything from three to five years for some runs to regain former breeding flock numbers and obtain former livestock production. Consequently run inpomes would be adversely affected for a number of years. In a way people were caught unawares by this storm. At first they thought that the snow would clear away quickly at this time of the year so that it took some time for its full seriousness to be realised.

Although it continued to snow from Thursday until Sunday in some parts of the country, most of the snow fell between Thursday and Friday morning and by then it was at about its maximum depth. It has been said that it was getting deeper by three or four inches an hour on the Friday night. Stuck Like Glue “This was heavy, wet, largeflaked material which stuck like glue,” says Mr Reynolds. “... Friday morning revealed a sight no spectators will forget in this lifetime. It was almost impossible to credit. Fences had vanished, cars left outside were just a blurred bump, and stock and pastures had gone—all under a deep blanket of snow which in places in the Mackenzie high cov.htry was up to sft deep.

And the snow was followed soon afterwards by a torrential downpour of rain, which was also hard on stock already weakened by the earlier conditions.

As in every other like emergency it is easy to be wise after the event and some lessons have come out

of this storm. Mr Reynolds says that it seems that much greater use could be made of radio communications. There were transmitting and receiving sets all over the place and if it was known where they were and who had control of them it would be possible to lift them to strategic points throughout the area of an emergency so that, for instance, better use could have been made of bulldozers that had been brought into the area to clear tracks to stock and to bring assistance to points where it was most needed.

It was clear, Mr Reynolds said, that all people in the area had had access to radios of some kind. With movement almost impossible in the first 48 hours of the storm, Mr Reynolds said, it was obvious that a helicopter stationed in the South Island and ready for instant action would have been of great assistance. A Royal New Zealand Air Force helicopter was, in fact, of course brought in to reconnoitre country for stock nearly a week after the storm started, and Mr Reynolds said that there was no question that it had been most useful. In an hour’s flight over a block of country it was pos-

sible to determine where all the stock were and deliver men to key points, whereas on foot they would take hours reaching these same points. It was also possible to take emergency supplies of hay to large mobs of stranded stock—that was if they would accept this feed. Mr Reynolds praised the wonderful co-operation of the Royal New Zealand Air Force in the Mackenzie storm and he said that the two pilots— Squadron Leader M. Robinson and Flight Lieutenant A. G. Oldfield—had been outstanding. There had been a lot of opinion that fixed wing aircraft could have been used in the emergency, said Mr Reynolds, but he considered that this was "not on.” They did not have the manoeuvrability of a helicopter. They could not place men and dogs in position on the country. Nor could they be Used to drop hay to stock. It had been suggested that a DC3 might have been useful for dropping hay, but if stock were marooned and hay was dropped so that it fell some distance away from them it would be of no use—someone would be needed on the ground to get the material to them. And if it was dropped directly on the sheep they might get killed by it. Thus the only place for fixed wing aircraft would be a limited role in initial spotting.

It was fortunate, said Mr Reynolds, that in the early stages of the storm there had been no case of serious illness, for in that period on quite a few properties the runholders and their staffs were unable to move. Crop Damage Referring to damage to wheat crops, Mr Reynolds said it seemed a little unjust that after being flattened by snow and having recovered in a very pleasing way from that vicissitude, the crops should then have been hit by frost. Mr Reynolds said that he was of the opinion that there would be few crops in the Mackenzie that would not have been affected in some way. The frosts, which came soon after the snow, varied from eight degrees to 18 degrees, he said. The frosting had occurred in many different forms and appeared to be severest in those crops that had been the earliest to become free of snow. The extent of the damage would take some time' to become obvious, and it would not be until after the New Year that the full loss could be assessed, but a number of early sown crops, and particularly Hilgendorf, had suffered severely, and speaking last Monday he said that it was known that at least five crops had been absolutely ruined. Mr Dingwall says, in his latest crop report, that early indications are that there

could be a significant reduction in yield from snow and frost damage in wheat crops, especially those growing within 10 to 12 miles of the foothills in Mid and parts of North Canterbury, and a significant reduction throughout the Waimate and Levels counties of South Canterbury due to the combined effects of drought, storm and frost Referring to South Canterbury, Mr Dingwall says that some reports suggest that the average yield could be down by 10 bushels per acre on last season’s relatively high yield, but the increase in this season’s acreage should largely compensate for the significant fall in average yield as far as regional production of wheat is concerned.