Storm Deluge Wrecks Homes, Floods Towns In Northern N.S.W.

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23288, 24 June 1950, Page 5

Storm Deluge Wrecks Homes, Floods Towns In Northern N.S.W.

(N.Z.P.A. —Router—Copyright.)

(11.15 a.m.) SYDNEY, June 24. A cyclone and torrential rain on the north coast of New South Wales have wrecked homes in two towns and caused disastrous floods in four others.

The rain caused six main north coast rivers— Tweed, Richmond- Clarence, Bellinger, Mackay and Hastings—to rise in a sudden flood.

Thousands of people in the towns of Woodburn, Coraki, Lismore, Grafton and Kempsey have fled their homes.

The most serious threat is to Kempsey, the centre of the rich north coast dairying industry, where 300 families have abandoned their homes and the whole population is standing by for the crest of the flood, which is expected to sweep through the town today. All roads are impassable as a result of rain in the district, and the only communication with the' threatened farms and isolated towns is by radio On the Richmond River a huge volume of water is rushing towards Lismore, low-lying parts of which are already sft. or 6ft. under water. From most towns in the affected area .reports say that residents expect the. floods to be the worst for many years. At Maclean, on the Clarence River, 3.50 in. of rain fell in 40 minutes. House Moved Bodily.

The cyclone lifted a house with a 15-year-old girl in it at Murwillumbah and moved it Bft. from its foundations. The walls of the house collapsed. , The cyclone also wrecked a second ""' house and unroofed hundreds more in the Murwillumbah district.

At Cudgen, near Tweed Heads, the eyclone smashed seven houses to pieces and unroofed others. A fisherman was drbwned when his launch sank in heavy seas in Moreton Bay, near Brisbane. More than 100 square miles in the Lower Richmond area between Coraki and Woodburn have been inundated.

The railway line between Lismore and Casino is more than 6ft. under water for nearly half a mile.

Half of Kyogle, on the Richmond River, is flooded, but the police report there is no danger to residents. The river at Kyogle is lift, above flood level at a record height of 58ft. In the Hunter Valley, the floods are now falling, but much of Maitland is still under water.