Boy drowned and roads cut

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33870, 16 June 1975, Page 1

Boy drowned and roads cut

(New Zealand Press Association}

AUCKLAND June 15.

Auckland and Northland were slowly drying out today after a week-end storm which claimed a life and cut roads in many areas.

Heavy rain, driven by tempestuous squalls, began falling late on Friday night and continued to buffet many North Island districts throughout yesterday.

In Auckland, 126 mm of rain fell between Friday morning and this morning.

The storm lifted tiles and roofing iron from homes in Cockle Bay, Howick, and tore gaping holes in the roofs of houses in Browns Bay.

There was widespread surface flooding. Roads in parts north of Whangarei were hit by slips and washouts. Storm victim The victim of the storm was a schoolboy, standing on the bank of the flood-swollen Wairau creek on Saturday.

Apparently he slipped and fell while throwing sticks into a whilpool and was swept to his death down a culvert running under the northern motorway. He was Wallace David Arthur, aged 13, son of Mrs G. M. Arthur, of Aaran Road, Browns Bay.

His body was recovered from a Wairau Creek backwater this morning. Today the rain eased off in most districts of Auckland

and Northland but according to the Meteorological Office more is to come. All rail services between Hawera and Marton have been suspended after a wash-

; out of the track between Waitotara and Waverley. Passengers were today transported by bus. It is i hoped to have the line reopened by tomorrow.