School bus runs into drift

Press, 5 July 1977, Page 1

School bus runs into drift

The Akaroa Area School bus spent most of yesterday stuck in snowdrifts on the road between Le Bons Bay and Akaroa. An Akaroa Area School teacher, Mr J. Stuart, was driving the bus to school yesterday morning when the bus hit deep snowdrifts and slid into the bank on the side of the road. The headmaster of the school, Mr D. G. McKay, said that only three pupils had been on the bus at the time because Mr Stuart had not been able to collect about 10 of the regular passengers. Mr Stuart and the three pupils were not hurt in the mishap and the bus was not damaged. The road was cleared by a grader in the afternoon, and the bus driven out. Flood-waters closed the highway between Christchurch and Little River yesterday, and thousands of hectares of farmland were inundated in what some local farmers called the worst flood in 30 years. Motorists along the high* way were turned back, by large stretches of water

more than one metre deep across the road. Essential food supplies and the occasional passenger were ferried to Little River by the town’s volunteer fire brigade. A log jammed against the Kaituna bridge caused sluicing of the abutments, and a Ministry of Works and Development digger was urgently called in to remove the log and pile boulders against the threatened abutment. At one point, a grader, which had just hauled an articulated truck carrying a heavy loader across a flooded section of highway, drove into a ditch ending up almost submerged and at a crazy angle. It was towed out by another digger. Farmers spoken to by our reporter said that they had managed to get their stock to high ground away from the flood, and none had any stock losses last evening. There was still about seven centimetres (3in) of snow at the Hilltop Tavern last evening, although the continuous drizzle was quickly turning it to slush.

The road between Akaroa and Little River, which had been closed yesterday morning, was cleared by graders yesterday afternoon and there was access to Akaroa. However, there were still major slips on the road.

A civil emergency was called at Little River at 4 a.m. yesterday after five families had been evacuated from their floodthreatened homes. Another family was evacuated from its two-storey house on the hill behind Little River after small slips and slumps occurred on the hillside. A jet boat was used to rescue one farming family near Little River, but noone reported water inside their house. The Chairman of the Wairewa County Council, (Mr E. G. Grant) called the emergency because in the dark it had been impossible to assess the extent and severity of the flooding. He said that the main cause of the flooding was the abnormal height of Lake Forsyth, which was

closed to the sea and could not drain.

“The civil emergency will stay in force until the lake is opened to the sea,” said Mr Grant. One bulldozer worked at the bar yesterday and two more would be at work today. The lake was more than 4m (13ft) above sea level and it was normally let out to sea when it reached just over 2m (7ft). In Okuti Valley a land slip came down behind a farm belonging to Mr J. G. Lewthwaite. Logs and silt crashed through their wash-house pushing the tubs and washing machine against the far wall. The slip began in a patch of bush bringing one-metre diameter ngaio trees down against the house. Several streets in Tai Tapu were closed off because of the flooding after the Halswell River overflowed its banks. The river also broke its banks in the Lansdowne Valley area and several houses in the Old Tai Tapu Road were surrounded by deep water.