LANDSLIDE DAMAGES HOUSE

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 September 1945, Page 4

LANDSLIDE DAMAGES HOUSE

OCCURRENCE AT MILTON ROAD Breaking away from the hillside a landslide on Saturday afternoon crashed down the slope on to Milton ,Road seriously damaging a dwelling its path, and taking portion of the /house with it. . i Though slips such as this have been reported before in the district, usually the soil has come away from a limeI stone bottom, but in this case some of ! Saturday’s heavy rain haa welled up behind a mound of outcrop sou, some 150 feet above the house, whicli is owned by Mrs. J. O’Neill, and as tne pressure mounted some io to 20 tons of debris were scooped out, and accompanied by a wave ot water, surged down the hill without waming7 The spoil struck the left side of the six roomed house at an angle, folded up the front and side walls oi the front bedroom, and earned them away to the lootpath where tne sap :Came to a halt. The debris swirled through the front room and an adjoining bathroom smashing the dividing wall, and depositing about 10 tons of wet loamy soal in the two front rooms. The worst damage was caused by the impact of the falling spoil, this •having the effect of throwing the building out of alignment, while the piles and understructure were severely strained. The whole of the front oi tne house was pushed about three feet on its foundations, and is still uninhabitable. The owner of the building, Mrs. O’Neill, a widow, afid her two daughtiers, Misses E. and IVI. O’Neill. were in 1 residence at the time of the incident, but fortunately, were occupying a back room and were uninjured, thougn the startling suddenness of the yisitation greatly shocked Mrs. O’Neill, who is confined to bed. The furniture in the front room was badly damaged and in some cases destroyed, including some owned by Miss E. O’Neill, who is to be married shortly. Mrs. O Neill will be a heavy -loser. x , As soon as possible on Saturday and yesterday neighbours began removing debris from the house, the sale of which was awaiting the approval oi the Land Sales Committee, and a better appearance was presented to-day, though the gap where the walls were sheered off gives an indication of the force of the'landslide.

APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE. The Mayor (Mr. F. A. Kitchingham) to-day made an appeal for financial assistance for Mrs. O’Neill. He said that Mr. F. H. Denton (Town Clerk) would accept donations which would be acknowledged in the Greymouth newspapers. Railwaymen have been asked to make a special effort to assist Mrs. O’Neill, whose late husband was well-known as a guard on the Christ-church-Greymouth express, and worked in the railways on the West Coast for about 35 years, and donations will be accepted by the Secretary of the A.S.R.S., Mr. A. E. Mayell.