ALL ROADS AGAIN OPEN FOLLOWING HEAVY COAST RAIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22697, 23 July 1948, Page 4

ALL ROADS AGAIN OPEN FOLLOWING HEAVY COAST RAIN

With fine weather becoming more general it was expected that all roads leading out of Gisborne would be in reasonable order during the week-end. The East Coast read to Opotiki was blocked in two places during the week following heavy rain, but the latest reports received by the Automobile Association (Auckland) office in Gisborne indicate that streams have returned to their normal level. Besides being blocked north of Te Araroa during the week, the East Coast road was also impassable to vehicles for several hours on Wednesday afternoon at a point just north of Tokomaru Bay Exceptionally heavy rain in this area caused a subsidence of the main highway and the Hooding of the open watercourses.

Rainfall recorded by the gauge at the council chambers at Te Puia for an 18hour period ended at 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday was 7.28 in. and it was reported that in the back country the fall was even heavier. At Waima, Tokomaru Bay, streams through the township were in high flood and the scouring action of the water resulted in a large harvest of eels being collected by residents at points where the streams fanned out over the beach. No stock losses have been reported, but it is considered likely that roads in the county will have sustained considerable damage.