RESERVOIR GIVES WAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 136, 5 March 1929, Page 13

RESERVOIR GIVES WAY

SUPPLY ON MOUNT EDEN EARLY MORNING DISASTER DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT THOUSANDS Dominion Special Service. Auckland, March 4. Eight hundred thousand gallons of water burst from the Mount Eden reservoir at halfpast five this morning. In the track of a devastating deluge, which rushed down the steep mountain side in its five hundred foot drop, tons of rocks, scoria, and earth were torn away, and carried many chains, in some places half a mile. Excavations for a new reservoir had left one wall of the old one. exposed. This broke out under the pressure of the water behind it. Built of reinforced concrete in 1912, the old reservoir was one of the first of its kind in the Dominion. The wall that was carried away was 13 inches thick. Such was the force of the water bursting its bonds that a huge slab of this wall, 39ft. by 21ft. and weighing 32 tons, was carried 80ft. “It was like heavy rain on a corrugated iron roof,” said the wife of the caretaker living on the northern slopes of the hill, just’ below the reservoir, “and that is all the people heard.” Had the disaster occurred three hours later 30 men would have been working on the new reservoir, and nothing could have saved them. They would have been caught like rats in a hole. The Mount Eden Road, from the tram stop at the foot of the hill to Sylvan Road, was in flood and was left littered with slime and debris. The tram service did not run until 8 a.m., a bus service using by-roads being hastily improvised. Clearing the Debris.

No one can ye; estimate the damage, but it will run into thousands of pounds. Contractors had put in a floor of the new reservoir and were at work erecting the false work for the walls. Roadways, plantations and rockeries on the hillside have been ruined. Gangs of men were immediately put on to clean up the debris, and quick work they made of Mount Eden Road. Beyond the gardens flooded and in some cases basements, people along the Mount Eden Road did not suffer as much as might have been expected. Fortunately for the people living on the mountain side the hill roads and natural run of the valleys or gullies led the roaring torrent into the only safe direction, and as a matter of fact many people did not know what had happened until they awoke and went outside, where they saw tons of earth and scoria debris littering' their roads. There was no resounding crash as one might expect when such rivers of water were dashed down from a height of several hundreds of feet. At the hour it happened there' was not a soul about the works and nobody was on the roadway that winds up the mountain. Had the cataclysm occurred in the daytime there would have been a death roll.

For many years the city has had a reservoir on the plateau which is just across the gully from the new tea kiosk. Recently it was decided to enlarge the storage capacity, and the Fletcher Construction Company had completed the excavation alongside the old reservoir, the southern wall of which was left exposed, support not being considered necessary as it was built of reinforced coilcrete over a foot thick. As far as can be ascertained only one person actually saw the flood when it burst from the plateau on which the reservoir is situated. This was a lady who lives on the mountain. “I was lying in bed this morning at half-past five,” she said, "when I heard a rumbling noise. I could not make it out. As a matter of fact, I thought it must be a lorry coming up with an early load. It sounded rather loud, but I thought the load might be an extra heavy one. It must have been then that the wall of the reservoir burst, and that pieces of concrete were hurled out by the water. When I got up the gap in the wall of the new reservoir was a foaming mass of water. “A Roaring Waterfall.”

“It poured out right down like a roaring waterfall, and tore up rockeries just alongside the drive, immediately below the plateau. Rocks and tons of timber came down, the timber being torn away from the false work of the new reservoir. Yes, it was rather terrifying, but there was no indication that thq flood would come u t > the sides of the gully in which I was standing. It was a wonderful sight. I knew what hnd happened, of course, and the first thing I did was to telephone to the foreman. Nothing more could be done.” Graphic stories are told by the residents in Mount Eden Road, who, awakened by t]ie roar of the raging torrent, rushed out on their verandas, clad only in night attire, and saw the flood at its height. Some in low-lying parts contemplated nbadoning their homes and making for higher levels, but it was soon realised that they were in no peril of their lives.

ns the fences for the most part would confine the water to the roadway.. For the moment, forgetting that the reservoir was located on the mountain side, others thought some mighty upheaval had released n terrible flood of water. This theory caused a panic in some households 4 but the real cause of the trouble was quickly broadcast, and all fears of danger from this source dispelled. It was a case of an ill wind blowing no one any good in some cases,, for after the water had receded in the inundated area residents reaped a harvest by gathering the wood I hat had been swept to their front doors on the flood tide. While many gardens have been ruined, it is calculated that the silt brought down from the mountain side will stimulate future growth. Trees Torn Out by Roots. . The floor of the new reservoir was concreted and the walls were partly boxed in ready for concreting. On the side facing the tea kiosk there was a gap, and it was through this that the water burst in one mighty flood. It emptied into the gully below the kiosk. Rockeries were torn up and thousands of tons of filling below the kiosk was swept away with the ease that one sweeps up the garden path. It hurled itself through the plantation, tearing holes in the earth that left the tree roots bare. It swept away bodily the artificially made nursery plantation for native trees, so that one could not find enough earth to fill a flower pot. Then the raging flood made straight across the main drive, tore up the bank on the other side, and Tons of water went roaring down into the old quarry at that spot. In its fall of over 100 feet the avalanche of water must have been a magnificent sight. If the waters had not found this convenient vent more ruin would haye been wreaked in the lower slopes, but even the vast quantities pouring down into the quarry were not sufficient to stem the fury of the flood, part of which turned. sharply to the left, followed the bituminised main drive, and went foaming and dashing, bearing tons of debris and rocks down the roadway, which made an ideal channel. Gully Torn in Footway. At one place, however, the torrent found a weak spot. It tore up many yards of a wooden fence, scooped a gully’ 20 or 30 feet deep in the footway, and then found its way into the same disused quarry as the bigger flood did higher up. Over a thousand loads of earth, scoria, stones, timbers from the false work of the new .reservor, bits of trees and other jetsam found a resting place at the bottom of the drive where it joins Mount Eden Road just near the tram stop, blocking the roadway, but oddlv enough, the surging mass did not invade the gardens on the other: side of Mount Eden. Mount Eden Road made another natural channel for this part of the flood, and for nearly a mile that thoroughfare was running a Danker. When the waters subsided the roadway was left covered with slime, and in places the debris was piled up a couple of feet thick. . _ A Sea of Mud.

House properties that suffered most by the flood are situated in Mount Eden Road. A front lawn of a residence in Sylvan Avenue is a sea of mud, and the residents are completely marooned, lhe residence of Mr. W. Kidd, at the corner of Normanby Road and Mount Eden Road, was possibly more threatened than anv other, but the debris piled up quickly ‘and acted as a deflector for the water. Thus the main stream was turned along tlic roadway. This, however, did not prevent a property which is very low lying from being surrounded by two feet of water. Everywhere there was a discoloured sea, anil boxes, vegetables, and firewood from the basement floated gaily round the yard. A house next door occupied by- Mr. G. E. Bishop suffered similarly, the workshop in the basement of the building being inundated. Nightmare for Housewives. For several hundred yards further down the road in the direction of the city gardens were more or less damaged by the encroaching tide. Housewives round about lived in a terrible nightmare this morning, cleaning up mud that had been tramped into their homes, and sweeping the thick coating of silt off the pavements. The most serious damage to property was caused in the women’s drapery establishment of Mr. E. E. Taylor, of Mount Eden Road. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, who occupy sleeping quarters in the rear of the shop, were awakened by neighbours at 5.30 a.m. to discover that several inches of water covered the floor of their premises. Mr. Taylor immediately rushed and opened the shop door, with the result that a greater volume of water than ever poured into the little establishment. “The roadway was an absolute lake,” said Mr. Taylor, when interrupted while boring holes in the floor to release the wafer this morning.