A TERRIBLE DISASTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22968, 21 February 1938, Page 10

A TERRIBLE DISASTER

A numbing sense of horror, a deep pain of grief and an eagerness of felt as the news of the disaster at a Wairoa-Gisborne railway construction camp, Kopuawhara, is received. All the particulars now known they are sufficiently full to indicate the nature and extent of the tragic occurrence —combine to present to the mipd a terrible picture. The suddenness of the rush of water and its irresistible fury can scarcely be comprehended. Without warning the fearful torrent swept down on the camp, plunging its occupants into a seething welter of destruction, which in a moment reduced the temporary dwellings to utter ruin and allowed little or no chance of escape with life. The few emerging alive must wonder at their preservation. In the circumstances, which included darkness before daydawn, and instant arousal from sleep, it is indeed a marvel that any escaped. The catastrophe must take sad rank among the worst that have befallen this country. From end to end of the Dominion there will be lasting regret. It is too soon to discuss in any illuminating way the cause of the disaster, too soon to say what should be done to mitigate the sorrow of relatives of the dead, and the plight of survivors. All that is immediately possible is to express the grief and sympathy so painfully occasioned. They need no prompting ; spontaneous and heartfelt, they bear witness to the bond that trouble of so dire a kind always weaves, making all one family in a shared realisation of the wide incidence of misfortune. To the utmost limit this truly human reaction to the news of such a pitiful event is active to-day.