Winter hits again with a vengeance

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33934, 29 August 1975, Page 1

Winter hits again with a vengeance

Snow and heavy rain disrupted road and telephone links in Canterbury yesterday as winter returned to the province after two days of fine weather.

The main routes to the West ('oast via Arthur’s Pass and the Lewis Pass were still closed late last evening. Snow lay to a level of 650 ft on the foothills of inland Canterbury — the lowest since the June 16 fall which covered Christchurch. It was another bad day yesterday for farmers with ewe flocks lambing in snow and incessant rain.

Rain fell steadily in Christchurch all day, threatening a repetition of the extensive flooding that hit the city last week.

In South Canterbury, Burkes Pass, between Fairlie and Tekapo, was negotiable only with chains. In Timaru, which escaped lightly from last week’s torrential rain, several streets were flooded. The Automobile Association reported last evening that the main highways between Culverden and Kai,koura and Blenheim and Kawatiri were impassable.

Several inches of snow was recorded at Methven, and properties and roads were flooded at Waipara and Amberley.

River watched No roads had to be closed lin the Christchurch area, but water ran up to 10ft wide in gutters and lay in large pools on the city’s sports grounds. A close watch was being kept last evening on the Heathcote River, which broke its banks last week, leaving a trail of silt-coated roads and properties along its entire course.

The Heathcote and Avon rivers were swollen by the rain yesterday. The chief engineer of the Christchurch Drainage Board (Mr P. J. McWiliiam) said the areas flooded in the fourday downpour last week were still saturated, and unless the rain eased soon Christchurch could expect more flooding. Rainwater seeping into the foundations of roads and causing potholes is now a “pretty significant problem,” according to the street works engineer of the Christchurch City Council (Mr B. H. Scott). Streets in many parts of the city had been affected, he said. One particularly bad spot

was the intersection of Victoria. Kilmore and Durham streets.

Mr Scott said that it would take at least a week of uniinterrupted work to fill the I potholes. Lines cut i, Telephone communications [between Canterbury and the whole of the West Coast were practically non-existent I for three hours and a half yesterday afternoon. Heavy snow at Arthur’s, Pass cut the main link of 24 toll circuits between Christ-, church and Greymouth about 9.30 a.m.

Post Office linemen from Christchurch and Greymouth made several unsuccessful attempts to reach the trouble) spot. The West Coast was almost! completely isolated about 1 12.10 p.m. when snow disrupted the 22-circuit toll link from Christchurch by way ofj Blenheim and the Wairau' Valley. This was restored by 3.301 Ip.m. and tommunications) I with the West Coast were! '“reasonable” by last evening., 'said a spokesman for the regional engineering office of) ithe Post Office (Mr P. J. 'Cahill). A power line crossed tele- 1 phone wires to Lees Valley., Oxford, cutting off 12 subscribers for three hours. j Farmer ‘lucky’ i A farmer in the Loburn district, north-west of Rangiiora, who counted himself .lucky to be only starting; (lambing this week, said that' 'the bad weather would have made conditions hopeless for 'anyone in the thick of lambing. He brought ewes on the point of lambing into a shed and lambed them there, but he said one lamb that would .have been outside for less 'than an hour had died in the cold. A Mid-Canterbury farmer, who lost 260 lambs last week,: said it had actually been' colder yesterday than last! week but he was past the peak of lambing. Only 20 ewes lambed during the day! and he was able to bring' them all in to shelter. It had been the worst) weather for lambing that he had known, he said.