THE CITY HARD HIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1941, Page 6

THE CITY HARD HIT

STORM DAMAGE VERY SEVERE

RECORD«RAINFALL FOR OCTOBER

Bad as the 1939 floods in Wellington were, the continuous pouring rain of Wednesday night, yesterday, and today has hit the city harder; in 1939 the damage was more or less centred about Karori and the Lyall Bay-Island Bay districts, but this storm has spread damage through every suburb, up the Hutt Valley, and over the hills to the Paekakariki coastal road. Rail services are interfered with, though there is no giajor wash-out or really heavy slide; tram and bus services were dislocated on several runs last night and this morning; Boads out of Wellington are all more or less blocked. The trouble mounts up not because of one or two great slips, but from the multiplicity of blockages, scores of which must be given immediate attention to clear a sufficient track for traffic. All last night, working under the most difficult and miserable conditions, emergency gangs kept waterways as clear as was possible, and this morning every man and machine available was hard at it. It is impossible to put a figure to the damage, but public expenditure will run into many thousands of pounds, and there is to be added the expense which householders and private property owners face in clearing up the mess left by. a fall of rain which was a record for the month of October.-