Tremendous Deluge Causes Unprecedented Floods In North

Northern Advocate, 3 February 1936, Page 5

Tremendous Deluge Causes Unprecedented Floods In North

SAVAGE FURY OF STORM UNLEASHED

Week-End Gale Strikes Whole Of Northland

One Fatality.

One flood fatality has been reported, a young man losing his life at Kaitaia, when a bach from which he was attempting to rescue personal be* longings, was carried away by the flood.

Kaitaia suffered severely, water entering many of the business houses, and tearing up portions of the main street.

On account of the sudden rise of the water, stock losses are stated to be ; heavy in all districts. Many settlers were up all night trying to save their sheep and cattle. The mortality has been heaviest among pigs, which are not so easily shifted to places of safety.

There have also been heavy losses of hay and ensilage. A Kerikeri message states that the approaches, planking and rails of the Kerikeri bridge were swept away, but gangs worked all day Sunday and had the bridge passable by the evening. The flood stopped the dynamos at the electricity station, and light and power were unavailable. Watery Whangarei. It 'takes an exceptional deluge to bring Whangarei Borough into the flood circle, but on Saturday night and Sunday morning, the whole town was awash, with the main streets roaring torrents. The damage to roads does not appear to be very high, but there will be fairly considerable loss to private property. Except for the main south road, there is hot a highway leading out of Whangarei which has not borne the brunt of the storm. In the Mangakahia Valley the flood rose within a third of its usual time, and set new records. Information from that area is very meagre, but, In view of the levels having been higher than in the 1917 flood, when hundreds of head of stock were lost, the valley must have been very severely hit. Farmers Stuck in Town. Many residents of the Purua-Pipi-wai districts were in Whangarei shopping on Saturday, and were prevented from returning in the evening by flooded roads. The most, serious aspect was not thjit the herds went unmilked, but that the cattle could not be shifted from low-lying areas. Even when the farmers did try to return yesterday they that 50 feet of the bridge spanning the Hikurangi River at Moengawahine had been carried away. The 150-foot bridge is one of the longest in the county. Other bridges, too, have suffered.

A swing bridge giving access to Mr George Hodgson’s property, Kaimamakau, is no more. The obliteration of a railway bridge at Whakapara has left the line at that sector looking like a scenic railway—all curves and turns. The supply from 200 shareholders of the Hikurangi Dairy Company has been deviated to the Kaikohe and Bay of Islands factories, and it is not likely that cream will be railed for the best part of this week. The flood in the Hikurangi Swamp is said to be the worst yet by Mr F. Elliott, of Tanekaha. There were three feet of water in the bar at Mr J. Keatley’s hotel,. Hukerenui. Roads Out of Commission. Roads which are definitely known to be out of the question for traffic today and probably for some days 1 are: — Whangarei-Pipiwai. Whangarei-Whangarei Heads. Kiripaka-Ngunguru, where thousands of yards of slips have fallen. Whangarei-Russell, blocked near Helena Bay with the washing out of a considerable portion of the road, and nearer Russell with innumerable slips.

In addition to the dislocation of road traffic, the railways have been harder hit than in the flood of January, 1934. Services on all Northern lines, with the exception of between Tauraroa and Whakapara, have been, can-

Storm and Deluge at Matapouri.

The storm which marked the close of January, 1936, will long be remembered by the inhabitants of Matapouri, Rain deluged the countryside, as it did so many parts of the North, and brought down many slips, which cut off the district from access or egress towards Ngunguru. But it was the fierce gale and heavy seas which rolled into the bays that made the storm memorable. Woolley’s Bay presented a majestic sight at the height of the storm, which left a trail of destruction.

Breakers raced up the beach as far as, and beyond, the well-known wire fence, which disappeared. A dinghy was smashed to matchwood, and the roof of a carshed was blown away. A plank, twenty feet long, nine inches wide, and three inches thick which had been placed on the roof was carried some ten yards until it collided with a bay window in Mr Woolley’s residence. A big pdhutukawa, familiar to many visitors who have camped under it, was uprooted and sandhills were levelled.

Mr Walker and family, who were camping at the beach had their tent blown away, and they had to take refuge at Woolley’s farm house. A large slip came down, blocking the road between Woolley’s Bay and Morrison’s Bay, and it is estimated that a week’s work will be required to clear it.

Those who left Matapouri for Whangarei yesterday had to travel via Marua. There are many slips on this road, some being of a substantial nature.

ABNORMALLY HEAVY RAINS THROUGHOUT THE LENGTH ANli BREADTH OF NORTHLAND DURING THE WEEK-END CAUSED UNPRECEDENTED FLOODING, THE EXTENT OF WHICH CANNOT YET BE GAUGED, OWING TO THE WIDESPREAD DISLOCATION OF COMMUNICATION SERVICES.

All reports available indicate that the flood was the most severe over the whole area that the North has experienced in living memory. • The rainfall in some areas was phenomenal, running into double figures. While the Kaitaia gauge registered only four odd inches, Kerikeri reports ten inches in eighteen hours, while Whangarei broke all previous statistics with an 11.41 twenty-four hour deluge.

Information is comparatively easy to obtain in Whangarei county and reports detail* damage to roads and bridges, which will cost hundreds of pounds to repair, and which has thrown out of gear all transport facilities, including those for the collection of cream and the transport of food to isolated districts.

celled, and no extension will be possible until Wednesday, and probably several days later. > I In the meantime transport facilities are available by road between Auckland and Whangarei. Further South. The raised road and bridges acrosi the Mangawai inlet were covered by the flood, which left a considerable quantity of debris strewn along the road surface as the water receded. At mid-day on Saturday a car succeeded in negotiating one of the bridgeless streams between The Cove and Mangawai, but had to be assisted out of the second one.

The Kaiwaka bridge bears a dilapidated appearance, as a result of the buffeting it received from flood waters. In two or three places between Kaiwaka and Maungaturoto portions of the road had slipped away, leaving a narrow passage way for traffic. These places have been marked either by red flags or tea-tree sticks. Many slips have occurred through the Maungaturoto Gorge, but traffic is able to get through. Scores of branches from road side trees "along the main road from Kaiwaka to Waipu fell, but were quickly removed out of the way of traffic. A detour had to be made round the end of a large microcarpa tree, which fell across the main road near the Ferry Bridge, Waipu, and had not been removed at a late hour yesterday afternoon. Considerable scouring has taken place wherever road metal was loose and had not been consolidated.