ACUTE ANXIETY

Evening Star, Issue 25419, 26 February 1945, Page 4

ACUTE ANXIETY

The water, advised our reporter at 1 o’clock, was banking up near Kaitangata township, causing acute anxiety to the residents because of the danger of its sweeping away the last bridge giving access to the town. The main road and railway are Interrupted, and only a secondary highway is available for traffic. COAL SUPPLY THREATENED. Because of the acute shortage of coal in Dunedin as a result of both north and south main lines being blocked last week, every available, lorry is being used to cart coal to Stirling for railing to Dunedin. Should Kaitangata be isolated, coal supplies from this source will be cut off. The directors of the Kaitangata Coal Company visited Kaitangata to-day, and expressed serious concern at the possibility facing them of not being able to forward coal to Dunedin, where it is so urgently wanted. About 20 houses to the west of Kaitangata have been evacuated, several already having been flooded. The gravest danger involves the’ Kaitangata Dairy factory, which stands opposite the outlet stream from the Kaitangata Lake. The flood gates across the stream, which prevent the inflow of tidal water, have proved inadequate to deal with the extra flow, and the flood continues to bank up. It was estimated that the flood had receded over a foot within the /past two days, and there was a gain of about four inches to-day. PROTECTIVE MEASURES. Volunteer workers have been busy building fascines of tree branches to prevent scouring. As the water rises it tends to find outlets through lower ground, and some protection is being constructed with sandbags to prevent it cutting new paths. To the north of the town in the old river bed the water has made some progress, all of the ground in that area being several feet under water, and several houses nearby are threatened. If a break-through occurs on .the east side of the outlet stream, which is lower, the water will probably scour under the dairy factory and wash away the last bridge giving access to the town. The store oF cheese in the dairy factory is being removed to safety, aiid houses in the vicinity evacuated. On the other side of the river, houses which last week were flooded are now well i above water level, the Molyneux River having actually fallen about 6ft since last Thursday. Workmen endeavouring to deal with the present ftooding are working in ironically brilliant hot weather, no rain having fallen in the district since Thursday. • •