THE RECENT FLOODS AND GALE

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 77, 2 April 1910, Page 3

THE RECENT FLOODS AND GALE

SOME ADDITIONAL INCIDENTS. Press Association telegrams, some of them delayed by lino interruptions, give further details of tho effects of the recent gale and floods. Thames wad isolated for two days. Floods caused the rivers , to overflow, with the result that there were several washouts on the railway, and traffic between Thames and Paeroa was suspended. It was expected to resume today. There has been a large area under water and considerable damage done. Some rafts of logs got adrift, but most were recovered. Several launches sunk. Much damage was d, ono fences and buildings. Several horses were drowned, and some narrow escapes are. reported. One settler, whose horses and trap were swept away, had a hard straggle to swim to land The Hauraki Plains drainage works, though incomplete, had a good testing. They stood tho strain admirably, and kept a large area dry. The county wtvter race was carried away, and tills will seriously interfere with motive power until repairs are effected, which will take two weeks. New Plymouth reports of damage in country districts show that stacks of hay and grain have in many cases been scattered abroad, farm buildings have been^ unroofed, and great damage has been" done to standing crops of maize and turnips. EXCITING TIMES IN GISBORNE DISTRICT. A Gisborne telegram under yesterday's date stated : — "A slip occurred on Kaiti Hill at midnight, twisting and wrecking a house occupied by A. Scott,- who, with his wife* had to make a hurried exit, and came to town in the drenching rain in their rfight-clothes. At Ormond the Presbyterian Church bell rang at 5 a.m. to warn settlers. There is 6fb of water in a number of houses in that township. The flood has not reached within two or three feet of the level of the 19C5 flood, and is not regarded as being very serious, the settlers having had ampl-s time to place stock on high ground. A number of maize crops have been destroyed by 'the fury of the gale, and the rain. The weather now seems Bottled, and tho flood waters are rapidly subsiding, leaving a thick coating of silt in tho paddocks and in the houses that were swamped. Additional damage reported is 'the wreck of Cooper's accommodation house at Morero Springs. It is a large single-story wooden building, leased by Mr. Bellerby. The flood water got under it, and part has fallen into the adjacent river, which" had encroached on the bank just by the houses. The new bridge at Pakarae, connecting Gisborne with the coast traffic, is very shaky, and numerous slips have occurred on that I'outc." Another Gisborne telegram staites that practically all the .residents ot Ormond left their .houses on Thursday night, fearing 1 the river would como over. Sixty were accommodated at A. B. Newman's, and others at the Ormond Hotel. Most of tho hotels in the district contained refugees. Misses Brooking were being brought in to Makaraka in a skiff when it caught on the top of a fence and capsized. The party were thrown into tho water, and tho Indies got on top of a pigstye, and were ultimately rescued. The mortality among stock has been comparatively light, but three substantial losnes are reported : — F. Teitjin (Makauri), 400 sheep ; P. Jones and Hallen (Ormond), 300 sheep oach.