Big seas, wind wreck beaches

Press, 26 July 1978, Page 2

Big seas, wind wreck beaches

PA Wellington Heavy seas on the west coast north of Wellington yesterday destroyed beachhome frontages, littered roads with debris and covered the coastline with metre’thick foam.

Westerly swells to 10 metres high, out to sea, combined with low barometer readings and 45-knOt winds, produced seas that tossed tree stumps and boulders up beaches and breached sea walls in the area between Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki. Raging seas and winds gusting to 60 knots battered Taranaki on Monday night causing severe coastal erosion and problems for shipping. The high seas ate into dunes along the whole north Taranaki coastline and at Port Taranaki, harbour board staff spent the night keeping ships in the port secure. One ship, the 8226-tonne Terowa, snapped two mooring lines at the height of thestorm, about 12.30 a.m., and the tug Maui had to be called in to help secure her. The cement ship John Wilson, moored at the old Newton King Wharf,

smashed its gangplank and three wooden piles, and snapped several moorings. At Fitzroy, New Plymouth, the waves at high tide just after 11 p.m. tore away thousands of metres of sand from the beach fronting the Fitzroy motor camp, leaving a Im drop below a ramp to the sand.