HIGHWAYS BLOCKED

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 6

HIGHWAYS BLOCKED

Slips and Flooding NAPIER TEMPORARILY ISOLATED From Our Own Correspondent. HASTINGS, Last Night, wnen a waauout m me Dea o> the flooded Tutaekuri river caused the Waitangi bridge to sink in the middle and the railway bridge to sag yesterday afternoon making them both impassable, Napier’s only remaining communication with the outside world by road was cut off and the town became completely isolated. Slips on the town side of the railway blocked the usual access to the Taradale road, but a route was available through Marewa. Feet of water made the Pakowhai road impassable and egress through Fernhill was blocked by a slip at Mr. Finch’s property at Korokipo. However, at 11 o’clock this morning travellers to and from Napier were able to get through at Fernhill.

To the north, matters were worse, and the natural difficulty of obtaining any definite information was multiplied by the failure of the telephone system north of Bay View.

When the swollen Esk river broke its banks, the Esk Valley and Bay View and Eskdale areas were inundated, and telephones went out of action, with the exception of those of a few Bay View subscribers who are connected direct to the Napier exchange. At Bay View the water was a foot deep and in places between there and the Wairoa turn-off the water covering the road reached a depth of five feet. Added to that, there were no fewer than a dozen slips on th*2 same stretch of road. The centre span was washed right out of the bridge across the Esk, and it is likely to be some days before the Wairoa road will be passable again.

Reports to nana tms morning show that between Mr. George Gunn's residence and Kaiwera Pa (Moneytown), there are at least 16 slips on the road, making it quite to all vehicular traffic.

The centre road to Crownthorpe, which was damaged in the February flood, is again impassable. A small bridge, recently erected on this road, is unsafe for traffic and access to places along this road will be uncertain for some time.

On the Whanawnana roaa there xs a big slip which will take some time to clear.

Slips irom tne hillsides along the Hastings-Waimarama road have blocked the route to the seaside resort. This road is impassable from the Havelock North side of the bridge over the Tukituki river. Gangs of men at present are engaged in clearing a track for cars, but it is not expected that the road will be opened until to-morrow morning. Public Works men n«ve got rar at Petane, and this afternoon a start will be made clearing slips on the Petane hill. Present indications are that the main road to Taupo will not be available to traffic for at least three weeks, although there is a chance that a route may be opened through Rissington, skirting the worst part of the country. There are slips and banks washed out all over the road. So far as is known at present, the Wairoa oad is in even worse condition.