ANOTHER STORM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 141, 12 December 1938, Page 12

ANOTHER STORM

HUTT RIVER VERY HIGH

PHENOMENAL RAIN

Most emphatic were the weather fbrecasters during the weekend that the weather would be bad, that northerly winds would blow with fury, and that there would be heavy rain. The clerk of the weather did not let them down, and the forecasts were amply fulfilled, but much more so in the Hutt Valley than in the city itself. There was plenty of wind on Saturday and more still yesterday. But the northerly gale was very variable: it was excessively boisterous at times, and then for a period the wind would be relatively light. . The strongest gust yesterday was one at 2.15 p.m. The wind at Kelburn. then registered a velocity of 80 miles an hour. The strongest gust last night, after the rain began, was one about 11.30 o'clock. This had a velocity of 60 miles an hour, as did also mother gust about 1 a.m. After that the wind decreased, and the weather this morning was bright and comparatively calm. The wind yesterday evening was accompanied by phenomenally heavy rain, which started soon after 6 o'clock and was heavy between 6.15 and 11. Between 6.30 and 6.45 it was most unusually heavy, hardly easing off until about 9 o'clock. The total fall at Kelburn was 122 points. At intervals during the storm thunder rolled and growled, but not to the extent it did a few nights ago. In the Hutt Valley the rain was three times as heavy as in the city. Its time distribution was much the same as that at Kelburn, but the quantity was far in excess. In Lower Hutt no fewer than 357 points were recorded, with the result that there was extensive flooding this morning. The high tide had the effect of damming back the flood waters coming down the Hutt River, and the river was in higher flood than it has been for a very long time. On the eastern side of the valley the rain amounted to quite five inches. TRAIN DELAYS. A railcar was delayed at 9.45 p.m. yesterday near Normandale owing to flooding caused by the inability of a culvert to carry the exceptionally large quantity of surface water. A goods train was also delayed for about an hour at Porirua, owing to surface water three feet deep in the station yard and across the line. The water began to flow over the line at 12.30 a.m., and did not begin to recede until 2 a.m., the train arriving there at about 1 a.m.