HOUSES FLOODED

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 12

HOUSES FLOODED

Many Landslips Follow Torrential Rains

DAMAGE IN SUBURBS Lyall Bay Residents Driven From Homes Torrential rain early yesterday morning, when 2J inches fell in as man yhours, was followed by a quite unusual number of landslips throughout the Wellington .suburbs. At Sutherland Road and Queen's Drive, Lyall Bay, torrents of stormwater rushing down the steel hillsides carried away fences and gardens. scoured deep channels, inundated houses, and left behind feetthick deposits of silt. Several houses were rendered temporarily uninhabitable, and their residents driven to seek shelter with neighbours. The rain began soon after eleven, and by 1 a.m. had swollen to a steady downpour. slackening about 2 a.m. Rain gauges recorded 2.11 inches, an exceptional lv heavy fall. City streets were awash.’ and the excessive Hooding of ■the hills, with the inability of the pentup rainwater to flow clear quickly, caused scores of slips in the suburbs. To add Io the alarm and discomfiture of the many folk awakened to find their floors awash and their carpets ruined, a slight shock of earthquake rocked the city at about 5.30 a.m. It is believed that this contributed to the ■many landslips, which were most 'frcqpent at about that hour. Houses Flooded. Sutherland Road residents were awakened at about 3 o’clock yesterday ■morning by a deep-toned rumble, as a storm-water culvert a hundred yards up the hillside, presumably blocked by ■debris, burst, and released hundreds ■of gallons of muddy water, which rushed in a torrent down the steep slopes. -Scouring out a deep channel, the water flooded the backyards and gardens of the houses on the np-hill side of the road, and made its way into several of the houses.

.Mrs. G. E. Gaze. 198 Sutherland Rond, found her home flooded with water, which left the back rooms silted ■with sandy loam to a deptli of two ■feet. From the mud, gas-stove and ■table projected like desolate islands. At the same time the water swept under tile building and scoured out the ■toundatious on one side. The neighbours, Mr. F. IL Turner, 200, and Air. G. J. R. Lambert.. 190, were invaded in a less degree. The foundations of Mr. Turner's house wore also undermined. ■The torrent descending the billside split, leaving .194 dry, and a second stream passed through the grounds of 192, occupied by Mrs. J. Suell. Finding their efforts to keep out the invasion of mud and water, futile householders were driven to seek shelter with their more fortunate neighbours. The houses that received the brunt of the flooding were left barely habitable.

The torrent swept across the road, carrying away the gate of a house on the lower side, and found its way down into Queen’s Drive. Once on the level flat, it lost its impetus and dispersed by various channels. Sutherland Road, however, was left feet deep in mud and debris, aud all yesterday a mechanical navvy was busy clearing this away.

Yesterday, too, the residents of the affected houses were busy retrieving and cleaning furniture aud effects, digging out their gardens from underneath a foot of spoil, and clearing paths and yards.

“A Raging Cataract."

"It was like a raging cataract,” said Mr. Lambert. "We heard the booming and rumbling of the bursting drain, and then we saw the water pouring over the concrete wall into our back garden like a miniature Mississippi. Tire folk next door tried to keep it out by baling solidly for three hours. They couldn’t even light their gas to make a cup of-tea. and we were kept busy supplying them witli Hot water. On top of everything came the earthquake. . . .” Mr. Lambert said that 18 years ago there bad been a previous washout, on a worse scale. After that the city council had put in the stormwater culvert, the bursting of which had released the pent-up waters on this occa-. siou.

A few hundred yards distant, at the point whore steps lead up from Queen's Drive to Sutherland Road, the latter thoroughfare was again blocked by a landslip and a rivulet rushing across the road aud down the hill. It carried away a wooden fence, scoured a channel through several gardens, and silted up the backyard of -Mr. W. H. Tills’s home at 130 Queen’s Drive. Mr. Tills’s new car was in the drive beside the house and was buried almost to the radiator-top. Water surged into the house and damaged carpets and furniture. This slip took place at about 2 o’clock yesterday morning. Kaiwarra Gorge Blocked. Blocking what at present serves as the main highway leading to and from Wellington, a fall of rock occurred on the Kaiwarra Gorge Road shortly after 7 a.m. yesterday. The fall happened at a point above the buildings that used to be a powder magazine, where a great quantity of rock has been taken by the city council to widen the road and provide material for road improvements elsewhere. This is the second time this winter that the Kaiwarra Gorge Road has been obstructed by slips. Several weeks ago a very large fall of clay occurred a little higher up the road, and ever since men have been at work shifting it and using the spoil to widen the road nearby. To do so they have procured stone for rebutments from the place where yesterday’s fall occurred. The rock that has fallen would have been brought down sooner or later. The road was completely blocked for an hour or two yes'erday, and later was wide enough for only one vehicle to pass at a time. Although such spoil is difficult material to shift, its volume is comparatively small and the road should soon be clear.

There was a slight: delay in the Johnsonville suburban train service when a a small slip between Ngaio and Wadestown pulled up one of the multiple-unit electric trains, and there was some difficulty in restarting it. Four other trains were consequently retarded. A garden in MacDonald Terrace was washed down into the road. A house in Street was left poised when a portion of the knoll on which it was built sl’pped away. About 20 f eet of embankment giving access to houses in Adelaide Road collapsed into the street.

Six slips of varying magnitude occurred in Crawford Road, Kilbirnie,

and about eight small ones in Ohiro Road. , ~ An accumulation of stormwater at Clyde Quay covered the roadway, swamped the floor of the new Con Fire Brigade station to a depth of several inches, and converted the fire brigade v’rd into a miniature lake. Houses were Hooded at John Stieet, Hospital Road, aud Herald Street, N wtAvn, Palm Grove, Berhampore, Houghton Bay, and Chamberlain Street. Karori. , There were many other slips in various parts of the suburbs. A big one came down at Wakefield Park. Others fell at Brooklyn Road, Onslow Road. Aro Street, aud at Kelburn, Ngaio, and Island Bay. (Pictures on Page 9.)