WEST COAST FLOODS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 84, 9 April 1938, Page 10

WEST COAST FLOODS

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE

TOWNSHIP INUNDATED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) GREYMOUTH, April 8. After Thursday's torrential rainfall, conditions improved on the West Coast today, although the sky is still overcast.

Reports from Inangahua and Maruia districts, however, indicate that the flooding there is the worst known for 30 years. The most serious damage is on the Reefton-Maruia Spring Road, giving access to the Lewis Pass Road. It is reported that more than Z\ miles of highway in that locality is completely covered with large slips, which it is estimated will take from four to six weeks to clear, while complete restoration of the road will take six months.

Many narrow escapes of workers engaged on road construction are reported. Four men living about 17 miles north of Reefton were caught between two big slips, but were able to escape by crossing one before further slips came down. They lost all their personal belongings. At Stevenson's Flat, 14 miles from Reefton, the foreman's hut and two single men's camps were carried away by the flood, the men losing all their property. The country through which the road to Maruia passes is extremely steep and heavily wooded, and the slips are stated to extend three-quarters of the distance to the hilltop. Practically every house in Crushington, a small mining township six miles from Reefton, is inundated, in some cases to a depth of four feet. The flood there is the highest since the record flood in 1926. At Waiuta the heaviest flood for 30 years damaged the Blackwater Goldmining Company's sawmill plant, carrying away the intake dam supplying electric power. No damage was done to the battery, but a nearby blacksmith's shop was carried away. Temporary repairs are being effected, but it will be some months before full operations are again in progress. Traffic and foot bridges over Big River are washed away, the water being five to six feet above the bridges. Big River is practically isolated, but it was hoped this afternoon to resume traffic to Waiuta, where there.is a big slip on the hillside two miles below the township.