SURVEY OF FLOODS

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 44, 22 February 1938, Page 2

SURVEY OF FLOODS

Main Roads Open SERVICES INTERRUPTED From Our Own Corresoondent. HASTINGS, Feb. 21. Most people in Hastings and the surrounding districts spent the week-end in surveying the effects of the recent downpours. Some toured the district, visiting various places of interest, but the majority contented themselves with surveying their own particular neighbourhood and clearing up their properties. The long spell of wet weather, with two particularly heavy rain storms within three weeks, has resulted in the whole countryside being almost waterlogged. Certainly saturation point has been passed in. many areas, and the result is that conditions underfoot are far from being pleasant.;One of the major effects of the continuance of the wet weather in Hastings is that of retarding drainage. In s. number of localities, and not necessary p in the low-lying areas, the super-abundance of surface water resulted in blockages of the essential services. During the week-end members of the outside staff of the Borough Council were busy clearing blocked drains, allowing the sto]:m water and other flows to find a clearance, but the task is made a particularly arduous one by reason ol phenomenal rainfall that has fallen during the lasit few weeks, and the fact that the rivers still are carrying considerable waters, and are, in fact, in flood condition, thus impeding the progress of the drainage of the borough. Though during the past 24 hours much of the surface water in the borough has disappeared, large areas of water are to be seen in various portions of the adjacent and surrounding country. All the main roads are open, though their condition is not of the best, there being many minor slips and washouts that require careful negotiation by motorists. There was a. slight dislocation of the railway service between Hastings and Napier on Saturday afternoon and evening, there being a washout a little to the north of Tomoana. the approaches to the bridge being effected. Passengers, together with their luggage, on the north-bound mail train were transhipped from the express at Hastings to buses, and completed their journey to Napier by road. The department was quickly on the job in effecting a clearance, and yesterday the line was restored, the two excursions trains from New Plymouth and Auckland experiencing no difficulty in reaching Napier. The carriages of the mail train were taken to Napier during the day in anticipation of m aking up this morning’s south-bound train. While a few cars have been successful in getting through the big quantity of surface and flood waters lying in the Pakowhai district, the majority find it impossible to traverse this route to and from Hastings. As late as 10 o’clock this morning one motorist was stuck in the water and had to be towed out by a horse and dray. There is still considerable surface water to be seen lying in the vicinity . of Faradon, there being a sheet of almost unbroken water to the west of the railway line. The road through Meeanee is negotiable.