TERRIFIC STORM IN BAY OF PLENTY

Grey River Argus, 19 April 1948, Page 5

TERRIFIC STORM IN BAY OF PLENTY

Whakatane, Tauranga and Opotiki Flooded P.A. AUCKLAND, April 18 Sweeping like a cloudburst across the coastal belt, the most intense electrical storm in twenty or thirty years was experienced in the Bay of Plenty late on Saturday night, and early this morning. While a black, lowering sky was lit spontaneously by dazzling flashes of lightning, between seven inches and nine inches of rain fell in a few hours throughout the countryside between Tauranga and Opotiki. The worst effects were felt at Whakatane. The two streams at the back of the town were transformed into torrents, and a river of water swept through the main shopping street. Almost every shop was flooded, and the goods stored or displayed on the floor level of the premises suffered considerable damage An early estimate was that the total loss would amount to thousands of pounds. Two cottages were damaged by slips from the face of the hill backing the Ohopo Beach, and the road linking Ohope with Whakatane was block- • 4. A few business premises were also flooded at Tauranga, where the rain- * fall over the 24 hours up to 9 o’clock this morning was eight point nine inches. Ih the Opotiki district, where the recording was over seven inches, lightning destroyed 50 transformer fuses, and repeatedly interrupted the power and telephone services.

Part of the picture theatre audience at Wihi Beach was marooned for the night by a stream which broke its banks, and inundated the footpath to a depth of four feet, and also destroyed five bridges on the main road. Along the foreshore, a store and several cottages were flooded.