TRAPPED IN A ROOM

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 110, 9 April 1926, Page 9

TRAPPED IN A ROOM

WHEN RESERVOIR BURST. WOMAN’S ORDEAL. SYDNEY, April 1. One of Hobart’s reservoirs burst its retaining walls early on Sunday morning, and torrents of water rushed through tho streets, the huge force of water carrying everything before it. Millions of gallons were soon rushing down the hilly district in which the reservoir is situated, and several houses in the path of the torrent were flooded out, though they all withstood tho sudden pressure. One house close to the reservoir was flooded so quickly that the occupants, clad in their night attire, rushed out into tho street, screaming with frght. But one of tho occupants, an elderly woman, was trapped in a room, and she was waist deep in foaming water beforo her rescue was effected. Her relatives were in little bettor plight, however, for when they got into the street they wore whirled along in tho path of tho escaping water, and had difficulty in escaping drowning. Immense blocks of freestone and brickwork were scattered along the streets up to a quarter of a mile from the scene of tho breakaway. The loss of such a largo quantity of water for domestic purposes, in tho light of the present Tasmanian shortage, is regarded ar nothing short of a catastrophe. Tho position in Hobart now is acute.