DAMAGE IN WELLINGTON

Evening Star, Issue 24006, 3 October 1941, Page 8

DAMAGE IN WELLINGTON

OVER 2 INCHES RAIN IN 8 HOURS SLIPS EVERYWHERE SOME HOUSES EVACUATED (P.A.) WELLINGTON', October 2. Rain fell in Wellington practically without a break to-day. Two spells of verv steady rain were recorded at Kelburn. The first was between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., when approximately an inch of rain fell, and the second between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.. when a total of l.Sin was recorded. The storm caused some of the worst damage in Wellington for many years. Practically all the main traffic and vehicular routes in the suburban areas have been subjected .to slipping. There are hundreds of slips all over Wellington, some quite extensive. and their removal presents a real problem to the engineer’s department of the City Council, because its stall’ is seriously depleted as a result of the war. It is -still busy clearing up the extraordinary slip damage caused by the uriprecedeiitly heavy rains of August and September. . (Reporting to-night on the condition of the roads, the secretary of the Wellington- Automobile Association said that none of the main arteries leading out of the city was blocked. Generally the association advised that on all roads, as well as on a number of streets, both in the city and suburbs, extreme care by motorists was necessary. The Hutt River rose seven feet. Several train scrvices > were blocked by slips for varying periods. Throe slips between Wadestown and Ngaio blocked the Wellington-Johnsonville electric railway line about 3 p.m. Passengers for Ngaio. Khandallah, and Jolinsonville arc being transported in buses. It is hoped to have the service restored to-morrow. A slip north of Pukenm Hay this morning caused a delay of 2b -minutes to a Palmerston North-Wcl-lington passenger train. Houses in Kaiwarra wore flooded, and three families in Gorge road had to evacuate their homos when the Kaiwarra stream overflowed and poured across the Hutt road, damaging business premises and blocking the road. The compound of the Atlantic Union Oil Company’s bulk terminal and warehouse at Kaiwarra was flooded when the waters , which had gathered there broke, away. They took about 4,000 empty oil drums with them. Some of the drums piled up- in the flooded stream, and others, possibly about 2.000, were swept headlong into the harbour. Many were later recovered from Oriental Hay. Heeause both access roads are blocked, Makara is isolated and expects to remain so for two or three days. In the worst flood in the memory of old residents, the stream rose 12 feet. School children, in danger of being marooned, were carried over slips by a party of. settlers, arriving home with mud to the waist.