HEAVY SEAS AT NAPIER

Grey River Argus, 18 May 1943, Page 6

HEAVY SEAS AT NAPIER

MARINE PARADE BUFFETED. NAPIER’, May 7. Huge breakers, at times well over 20 feet high and foam-covered at a distance of three-quarters of a mile from land, nounded the foreshore of Hawke’s Bay and caused considerable damage to plant life on the Napier Marine Parade. The waves broke over tne shingle bank fronting Plaumoana, a few miles south along the bay, to cause structural damage to small buildings in the vicinity of the beach.

Crcs.Ung the shingle bank, at Haumoana during the night, the seas tore .a wooden and iron building on the beach front from its foundations and turned it round in the opposite direction. A shelter shed on the beach was smashed. After crossing the bank, the water swept over the beach road, gouging deep tracks in the surface, and ultimately washing away towards the lagoon. Fortunately, there were no houses in the affected area, but numerous backyard guldens were wrecked by salt water, although so far as is known in no instance did sea water penetrate the houses. Several lowlying areas are under water. A considerable quantity of light shingle has been thrown across the promenade on the seaward side of the playing areas on the Marine Parade, Napier, while the high water limit of the meaning’s tide is marked on the greens by a layer of pumice and seaweed, which extends across almost one-third of the area. Nor did the grass area fronting the Sound Shell, on a higher plane than the playing areas, escape the fury of the sea. Here also was a similar tale, even the auditorium itself having deposits of shingle lying about._