Kaikoura cut off after slips and flooding

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33791, 13 March 1975, Page 1

Kaikoura cut off after slips and flooding

Kaikoura township was cut off last evening after heavy rain had deluged the area during the afternoon, causing slips and flooding over the Main North Road and the Main Trunk line.

Both road and rail routes north were closed and in Kaikoura streets were flooded and one road had subsided.

Seven inches of rain fell in Kaikoura in the 12 hours to 9.30 p.m. For the last five hours of that time the rain averaged an inch an hour and was showing no sign of letting up.

Surface flooding occurred in the whole of the Kaikoura county and all roads were closed. State Highway 1 and the Main Trunk railway were closed last evening by washouts and surface flooding between Kaikoura and Clarence Bridge, and Clarence Bridge and Kekerengu. Heavy flooding in the area around the town necessitated a number of houses being evacuated. ’The fire brigade had a task to pump out the county power station. In the Kaikoura township the main shopping area at

Westend has two feet of water flowing down the thoroughfare and shopkeepers were busy last evening moving goods to higher levels. Churchill Street, which is also State Highway 1 as it runs through Kaikoura, was closed because the road had subsided. “Stay at home” In the east end of the town small streams from gullies on the Kaikoura

peninsula had become raging torrents. They cut across roads and flooded properties. At 9.30 p.m. yesterday, Mi R. J. Broadhurst, the County Overseer, appealed to all residents to stay in their homes and keep off the roads as conditions were getting critical. Ministry of Works staff who had been patrolling the main highway had brought to Kaikoura several stranded motorists who had been trapped by rising flood waters, both north and south of Kaikoura. Access to Kaikoura had been cut off in the north and south. Two miles north of the town water was 2ft deep across the road, and there was also heavy flooding near the Kaikoura golf course, a mile south of the town. Ministry of Works staff who left to inspect the road north were trapped at Clarence, unable to return to Kaikoura. The rain caused slips in the Hundalees, south of

Kaikoura, and the main highway was reduced to one lane in places. Travellers between Picton and Blenheim were faced with a 48-mile detour through Havelock to reach their destinations. Flooding on the road has prevented motorists from making the 18 mile trip between the two centres. Train stopped Surface flooding and slips on the Main Trunk rail line between Parnassus and Picton has stopped three trains en route and forced the cancellation of nine others. The Main Trunk line north of Kaikoura was closed at

3.30 p.m. yesterday and State Highway 1 at 5.30 p.m. The Main Trunk line is still open to Kaikoura, but railways staff felt it was useless to send trains if they were unable to get any further. Trains cancelled include the overnight expresses, There is a big slip on the line between Rakautara and Clarence Bridge, and surface flooding at Koromiko. Minor slips along the line could get worse if the bad weather continues.

Early this morning it was still raining heavily with a strong wind. A heavy sea was running but high tide was not due until after 4 a.m.

Heavy rain in Chch and surface flooding early this morning, and N.I. storms on Page 18.