Flash flooding causes havoc

Press, 1 May 1981, Page 1

Flash flooding causes havoc

Westport reporter

An Inangahua man, Mr Paddy Burne, lost his car at Dee Creek bridge on Wednesday afternoon when a wall of water swept it away. The car was on the bridge where floodwaters suddenly struck and Mr Burne, his wife, Robin, and daughter Tracy, had to scramble to safety.. Fifteen minutes later another surge of floodwater took the whole bridge, and closed State highway 6 between Inangahua and Murchison.

According to the resident engineer of the Ministry of Works, Mr Ted Hansen, the highway will be closed until at least tomorrow.

A Bailey bridge was being assembled at Dee Creek yesterday, and when

this is in place staff will attend a washout at De Filippi Creek, about skm further north, and a slip in the Upper Buller Gorge. Wednesday was a bad day for Inangahua. Heayy rain began in the early 'hours and at 4.30 a.m. a sharp tremor woke many people. The rain continued and record falls in the upper reaches of Dee Creek, round Boundary Peak, caused the creek to rise and break through dams formed by slips in the violent Inangahua earthquake of 1968.

Travellers stranded in the Upper Buller Gorge spent a cramped but warm night by candlelight inlocal farm houses, while lightning storms flashed almost continuously through the mountain ranges.