100 Men Engaged In Desperate Fight Against Flood

Northern Advocate, 2 December 1939, Page 10

100 Men Engaged In Desperate Fight Against Flood

[Per Press Association. Copyright ,] BLENHEIM, This Day. ;

Ten thousand sandbags were filled by river board workmen and farmers on the banks of the Wairau River yesterday morning in efforts to prevent the swollen river topping the stopbanks and flooding the countryside. Simultaneously, a river board staff, augmented, for the occasion, worked till midnight cutting a 500 yards-wide channel through the boulder bank at the Wairau Bar to. give the accumulated flood waters a more direct exit to the sea. Water Rises Swiftly All told, the board had over 100 men engaged in a desperate fight against the flood last night, in addition to settlers who laboured in their own interests on the stopbanks adjacent to their properties. In some cases the water rose so swiftly and to such extraordinary height that it soon poured, a foot or more in depth, over the embankments, which were already raised as much as three feet above normal. Extensive Areas Inundated This water inundated extensive areas at Spring Creek, in the Lower Wairau district, but the worst inundation resulted from the breaching of the stopbanks on the Tuamarina side, where farmhouses were invaded and valuable crops sv/ept by the water. The Wairau River rose 16ft Gin above normal, one of the highest points ever reached. The last train to Picton for probably several days got through yesterday afternoon. Highest Levels on Record Nelson and Golden Bay rivers reached the highest flood levels on record yesterday. N'flson was isolated from all parts of the province for 36 hours up to about noon yesterday. Deep water lay across the hgihways, and the railway service was dislocated through a washout on the line at Brightwater. Many farms and crop areas in the district were covered with water and, until the floods recode, the full extent of the damage cannot be ascertained. Railway Line Damaged The flooding of the river at Brightwater damaged about 150 yards of line near the Brightwater railway I bridge, where the water undermined sleepers and scoured out channels to a depth of six feet