EXTRAORDINARY DOWNPOUR

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 122, 27 May 1925, Page 9

EXTRAORDINARY DOWNPOUR

Looking back over the recent storm, which, in its intensity, was hardly without parallel in the history of the State. Sydney can congratulate itself, in estimating its surprisingly small amount of damage, that its hills and heights and general topography provided an easy outlet for the enormous mass of water that fell upon it, and that it was bo quickly able to shake itself dry once more. If it had been a flat city, like ' Brisbane or Melbourne, or Adelaide, there would unquestionably have been a far different and more tragic story to tell. The comparatively few low-lying localities about Sydney assumed the proportions of lakes, but in the metropolitan area generally the deluge was extraordinarily light in its toll. From the dopes everywhere the water drained rapidly, and was qniridy swallowed up. It was in the country mostly that the flood left its trail of dam-age-and loss. In some respects tho extraordinary downpour was a blessing, for it has given to Sydney an unprecedented storage of water for future requirements just at a_ period when the Water Board was thinking of imposing the annual prohibition on the too-free use of the hose. The supply had so dwindled that it was a question whether the customary restrictions would not have to be enforced. Now the spectre of a water famine has been swept aside. Not merely that, but the requirements of the metropolis are safe for at least eighteen months. At the height of tho deluge water was pouring into one re-' servoir alone at the rate of 50,000,000 gallons an hour. Thus, a city of a million people is absolutely safe for a long time ahead as far as its water consumption is concerned, and the new Water Boa-rd can now set about its business of reticulation and further storage with a mind free of the anxieties that beset it before the storm. The rain inland has also improved the outlook.