Coast faces sea of mud

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 1

Coast faces sea of mud

By

PAT TAYLOR

in Greymouth

Mud-silted streets and shops, damaged goods and smashed windows greeted Greymouth at dawn yesterday.

A fine, sunny day ensued for the biggest clean-up in the town’s history. While shops and offices emptied flood-damaged carpets, desks, racks and display stands on to footpaths, the fire brigade and others began hosing down the silted footpaths and streets. They were followed by council road-sweepers and those of neighbouring local bodies — including the Westland County Council, which services South Westland below Hokitika — and contractors. Front-end loaders lifted piles of mud and shingle and dumped them into trucks. By late afternoon the streets in the business area were rapidly returning to normal, but it was a sad picture in many shops. Rumours that some had decided not to reopen were strong, but could not be confirmed. One shopkeeper, reported to have decided to close, denied this to “The Press.” “I suppose I have written off ’ $150,000 in stock, fittings and carpets in the last two floods,” he said. This time, among other items, the cost was expected to be about $20,000 for smashed windows, which broke in the surge of the floodwaters. Mr Tony Coll, who runs the Sports ’n Leisure Centre in Albert Street, and who also suffered damage, said he would carry on. “Like many other people I would move to some better part

if I could, but there are no places around. “It’s a big mess, but you have to carry on,” he said. Mr Don Smith, of D. W. Smith Radio, Ltd, who has been heavily hit in previous floods in his shop on the ground floor of Broadcasting House, at the corner of Albert Street and Mackay Street, was busily engaged yesterday with a team of friends in cleaning up. "I was lucky this time. I managed to move large items, televisions and such like, upstairs into Broadcasting House before the flooding came.” The president of the Greymouth Business Association, Mr Joe Buckley, said that most business people would be in favour of moving away from the floodprone lower levels, but the cost would be “horrendous.” “The Government, the insurance companies and banks would all have to come together to put up a plan to develop a new area. “Then we could bulldoze this and move.” In the Grey Valley, farmers were still checking their properties yesterday and were being urged to make reports to the Ministry of Agriculture urgently. Pastures, fences and stock losses are expected to be considerable, and the provincial president of Federated Farmers, Mr Paul Berry, said that many farmers were still repairing silt and fence damage from the May flooding.