WEST COAST FLOOD

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 107, 2 November 1926, Page 12

WEST COAST FLOOD

REPORT FROM WESTPORT

ENCROACHMENT MENACES THE

HARBOUR.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WBSTPOBT, Ist November.

One of the heaviest floods in the history of Westpoit occurred on Sunday night, doing much damage to the Buller Gorge road, where several big landslides have taken place. A temporary bridge at Hawke's Crag and some smaller bridges have been carried away. It is also reported that two spans of Larry's Creek road and railway bridge, near Eotokohu, have been swept away by the flood.

A big tree fell on the telegraph line, cutting all connection with Westport until the,poles w«re raised again and lines linked up to-day. It is expected to be fully three days before traffic can be restored. . . .

A big tree or boom has caught across two.spans of the Bnller Bridge at the entrance to Westport, and the rush of th« flood waters ia- causing a portion of the bridge to eway dangerously. Attempts so far to break the boom with dynamite have failed. Aa the flood waters are falling all danger is lessening.

Great inroads have been made on M'Paddcn's paddock, and fears are entertained that if protective works are not speedily provided the Buller Biver will break its banks and possibly destroy Westport Harbour, on which over £3,000,000 have been expended. At Organ's, workmen who were to do some protective work with willows placed their tools under a big rata some distance back from the river, only to find when they later went to the scene that the rata- tree- and the tools had disappeared in the flood.