Southland’s flood

Press, 21 July 1984, Page 20

Southland’s flood

Southland’s Black Friday: The January 1984 Flood. Text by Clive A. Lind; photographs by many Southland residents. Craig Printing, Invercargill, 1984. $B. Dozens of photographs of Invercargill’s worst flood have been collected in a book that makes an impressive record of an awful natural disaster. As well, sale of the book will help the continuing recovery in Southland for $2 from each Ssold goes to the Southland Flood if Appeal Fund. Insurance claims of over $5O million are likely to be paid out when all the effects of the flood are processed. The real cost of the damage must run much higher and may never be known accurately. It was one of New Zealand’s worst natural disasters, yet — as these photographs make clear — it was also one of the most curious. Most startling of all, no lives were lost. From the night of Thursday, January 26, events moved fairly slowly. Although the waters rose part-way during the night, the real crunch came in daylight, and on long summer days at that. Curious, too, the weather was kind. There was no wild storm to hamper rescue work; no days of miserable weather. By the evening of Friday, January 27, with much of the flooding still to come, skies were clearing and there was a lingering, grand Southland sunset. This is a splendid book that displays humour as well as tragedy. Above all, it will bring home to the rest of New Zealand the awesome scale of the flooding, in Invercargill, in smaller towns, and in the countryside. It gives at least a glimpse of the achievement of the people of Invercargill in reviving their city from what all must hope will be the “1000-year flood.: