Had To Abandon Truck In Kiripaka Flood

Northern Advocate, 25 January 1940, Page 2

Had To Abandon Truck In Kiripaka Flood

Caught by rapidly rising flood waters at Kiripaka yesterday afternoon, a truck driver had to abandon the vehicle to wade through deep water.

He is Mr. A. Hallett. driver of Grey and Menzies’ large truck. Distributor trouble caused him to stop on the Kiripaka Fiat fronting the properly of Mr. and Mrs. Knapp. He was attending to the mechanical defect when the waters, backed up by the tide, surrounded him as if by magic. Clambering on to the truck, he found no sanctuary there. Undressing and carrying his clothes in his hands, he eventually won his way through a fairly stiff current to dry land. Truck Covered By Flood. Meanwhile, in Whangarei, Mr Harold Menzies, manager of the firm, received word that the truck was in the flood. Making a quick trip to Kiripaka, his anxieties as to Mr. Hallelt's safety were quickly relieved, but there was no sign of the truck, even the hood being covered by the surging water. A number of motorists who were also held up by. the flood, which blocked the road for a quarter of a mile, wore extremely grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Knapp, and their daughter Helen, who brought a steaming billy of tea to the roadside. With the failing of the tide at .10 p.m., the road again; became clear, and it was possible to- recover the’ truck, : which was not damaged materially.