Lake Still Building Behind Slip

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 40

Lake Still Building Behind Slip

fNeto Zealand Press Association)

GISBORNE, August 9.

A lake of water behind the blocked Mangaorangi Stream now stretched for two miles and a half, said the chief engineer of the Poverty Bay Catchment Board (Mr I. E. Jones) yesterday.

Mr Jones, accompanied by catchment board and Cook County representatives, visited the site of the slip, 26 miles upstream from Gisborne.

Mr Jones estimated that 300 m gallons of water was backed up in the lake. The stream is a tributary of the Waimata River which runs through the middle of Gisborne. It has been blocked since July 31 and the Cook County and Gisborne city civil defence organisations have been alerted.

At the present rate of filling he expected the water to over-top the slip some time next week, said Mr Jones. In the 20 hours between 2 p.m. yesterday and 10 a.m. today the lake had risen nine inches, and was 4ft 3in below the point at which it would spill over. Heavy rain would alter the position and the catchment board was endeavouring to obtain a long-range weather forecast. In the meantime, said Mr Jones, the board would watch the lake closely.