1000ha of prime N.I. farmland flooded in breach

Press, 29 December 1980, Page 1

1000ha of prime N.I. farmland flooded in breach

PA - Hastings Emergency services in Hawke’s Bay. were preparing for an anxious night as a turbulent Ngaruroro River spewed its floodwaters through a breach in a stopbank to imindate more than 1000 hectares of the Heretaunga Plains.

The Ngaruroro, swollpn by eight days of intermittent rain, which culminated in a torrential downpour on Saturday night, broke a 120 m gap in the stopbank at Twyford, on the outskirts of Hastings, at 8 a.m. -yesterday. About a dozen families fled their homes as a wall of water swept down on orchards, vineyards, cropping land, and intensive farms. With more water pouring through the stopbank than the plain’s drainage system could cope with, a huge ..and ever-increasing lake began to build up. By 5 p.m. it had spread over at least 1000 hectares of some of the world’s richest • agricultural land and„cut off one of the main ' highways between’ Hastings and Napier . on the. outskirts of Hastings. The' police. Ministry of Transport; the Hawke’s Bay County Council, Hawke’s Bay- Catchment Board, and Ministry of Agriculture combined in a big relief scheme. All people in the floodaffected areas and in the likely, path of the water hav.e been accounted for. • Several of their homes have' more than 2m of water and silt through them. Most have made their own arrangments for alternative 'accommodation and plans have been made to evacuate further homes if the need arises. Mr David Hamilton, the Catchment Board’s deputy chief engineer, reported late yesterday afternoon that the level of the river was falling slightly, but

even more rain had been forecast for the next 24 hours. “The rivers are dropping slightly, but ev.en so we must be prepared for them to rise again tonight,” he said. t . Because of this the board was bringing in bulldozers to open a cut in an old stopbank to divert some of the flood waters into the Clive River, formerly , the original course: of the Ngaruroro./ . . ; The catchment Board and County Council hope that this and the existing drainage system leading into the Karamu Stream will cope with the flood waters as they spread across the highway. . Adding to the engineers’ problems - was a reportthat the stopbank, nearly opposite yesterday’s breached section, , was, showing alarming signs of giving way. - ‘ Water was “bubbling and boiling” up 1 through an 80m section of .the bank and the two nearest landowners have been advised to move all their stock. No accurate assessment of the stock losses is available, but at least 750 sheep and lambs are known to have been lost. Grapevines, stone fruit trees, and other ground crops have been destroyed. In the back country where rainfall in the 24 hours up to 9 a.m. yesterday was as high as 185 mm, countless washouts and slips had destroyed bridges and culverts, cutting off access to many areas. ..........