DAMAGE CLAIMS

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33512, 18 April 1974, Page 1

DAMAGE CLAIMS

More than 100 applications for compensation for flood damage were received by the Earthquake and War Damage Commission in Christchurch yesterday, and more applications are expected.

Householders in the St Albans area and market gardeners in Marshland are among those who suffered most

Houses in the Flockton Street area were awash, with 4ft of water running through them. The damage is mainly to floor coverings and soft furnishings.

The Christchurch assessors for the commission said there had been many telephone applications for compensation, not only from home owners but also from grocery and furniture stores for loss of stock, from garages for the loss of bat-tery-charging equipment, and from refrigeration factories and others.

Motor insurance firms had many claims from people whose cars had to be abandoned in floodwaters. Some cars were almost immersed in the St Albans area. Onions covered At Marshland hundreds of tons of onions worth up to S2OO a ton lay covered by water in fields which looked like miniature lakes. The growers fear that the onions will be ruined. The Ministry of Agriculture says that the storage quality of the onions will be badly affected, even if the growers are able to recover and dry them.