AFTERMATH OF STORM

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 28 March 1935, Page 4

AFTERMATH OF STORM

K'apuni River Alters its Course at Dawson Falls TRACK TO HOSTEL UNDAMAGED NO DAMAGE AT ARARATA As a result of the storm on Tuesday night, the Ivapuni river has completely altered its course in some places near Dawson Falls. The banks were gauged out by the velocity of the river, which became a raging torment, and the flood waters carried heavy deposits of shingle and rocks which filled up the old river bed. The floor (of the buifding which housed the' machinery is now on a level with the river bed. No time is being lost in getting the machinery removed, as at the moment, being right on the level of the river, it would ’suffer further damage should the river again rise suddenly.

• The rain .which fell last. night .was not of . sufficient intensity to cause any anxiety, and the river did not rise appreciably. The track; was undamaged, with the exception of one or two minor erosions caused by the overflow of water tables, but these have now been attended to. The total rainfall in Hawera during the last 24 hours was .71 of an inch, most of it falling after 8 o’clock last night. The rain was accompanied by minor claps of thunder and flashes ol lightning, but it did not last in sufficiently long periods to flood the water tables as was the case on Tuesday night, when nearly 11 inches fell within a few hours.

The storm in Hawera was of much greater intensity than it was in the Ararata district, where thunder was not experienced. No damage was reported in the area which suffered so severely in the February flood. In one or two places in the Morea Valley where a horse track had been cut through the slips down on the road, the track had caved in, but nothing of a serious nature occurred.