HEAVY FLOODS LOSSES IN WAIROA DISTRICT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 118, 20 May 1914, Page 3

HEAVY FLOODS LOSSES IN WAIROA DISTRICT

ROADS, BRIDGES, AND STOCK SUFFER. (IT TELEGRAPH.— PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WAIROA, 19th May. A report from the country states that there is very heavy loss of stock. Roads and bridges have gone in all directions. At Waihua the river rose over 16 feet. The Wairoa River is still rising and it is raining heavily. At present tho river is over all the walls and the town wharf at the Harbour Board shed dropped six inches. Several piles have been washed away. The Mohaka River rose to an enormous height last night. The postmistress had to leave her 'office and take shelter at the hotel, where the flood is running through the office. At noon to-day the Mohaka bridge was intact, but great fears are expressed for its safety. The, harbour,, works, are still holding, but the contractor is a. heavy loser owing to a part of the inner turning wall and the tramline having been washed away. The main works, as far as can be ascertained, are stilt intact. Tho tug Kind, was washed up on the beach and severely damaged yesterday. ANXIOUS TIME AT GISBORNE WATER ENTERS MANY HOUSES. GISBORNE, 19th, May. The storm continues. The night was very boisterous. The rain, however, is now lighter and the flood waters have subsided about 12 inches, though the water still covers the Poverty Bay flats and has entered many homes. Last night the flood reached to within a few yards of the Makoraka' Hotel, where a number of families had taken refuge. At Nelson's freezing works the water rose to within 12 inches of the 1910 record. The stokehold is knee-deep with water. Heavy slips occurred on the railway works > at Ngatapa. One covered a- tent occupied by Samuel Doleman, a contractor, whose dead body has been recovered from the debris. RAILWAY TRAFFIC SUSPENDED FOR A WEEK. The floods reached their maximum at high _ tide in the early hours of this morning. With the ebb tide they commenced to recede, and the water has been steadily running out all day. At the worst the floods were within twelve inches of the 1910 flood record. The settlers, taken all round, were well warned, and stock losses are comparatively slight. Mr. Frank Read, of Pouparae, lost 400 sheep, and Mi*. A. J. " Cameron, of Pouparae, and Messrs. Judd Bros., of Makuri, also sustained some losses. Washouts and slips on the railway are very serious, and traffic will be entirely suspended for a week. The approaches to the Grey-street bridge and tha Peelstreet bridge in the town are washed out, thus cutting off vehicular traffic with the railway station. The low-level Public Works bridge on the Napier construction i works is again threatened, the approaches having been washed away. Seas on the coast are very heavy, and the Petone, which arrived from Picton, experienced the roughest and most tempestuous passage in Captain Cowan's sixteen years' experience of the coast. Telephonic communication with the inland centres is subject to interruption, and telegraphic communication with the south is uncertain. The rain and, storm have abated somewhat, and the indications point to a break in the weather.