AUCKLAND DOWNPOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19687, 14 January 1926, Page 8

AUCKLAND DOWNPOUR.

MANY SHOPS FLOODED. MOTHER WADES TO CHILDREN. COUNTRY GREATLY BENEFITED. (F-p.om Otm Own’ Coerespovdext.) AUCKLAND, January 13. During yesterday's thunderstorm t he locality of'the Dominion road tram terminus suffered very severely. In a very short time all the drainage sewers and outlets were choked and the middle of the roadwa was converted into a lake, fed by the waters which rushed down like mountain torrents, scouring fresh beds in their pasages. Shopkeepers in the vicinity were sorely tried, and many were tho attempts made to stay the flood waters from rushing into the shops. Many tried boarding up their doorways; others used bricks, while almost all were engaged in sweeping back the waters with street brooms. Damage to stock is sure to result in some cases as the water found its way into the shops in a great number of instances. At the height of the downpour the water was well over the footpaths, the kerbing being hidden beneath the flood water. One anxious mother, who before her marriage had been accustomed to roughing it in the back blocks, and whose two children had become marooned at a house in Balmoral road, donned a pair of riding breeches under her mackintosh, and braved the flood. The force of the rushing waters was so great that she had difficulty in keeping her feet, the water being almost to her knees, but the children were duly collected and escorted home.

When the flood waters began to recede, the sidewalks revealed piles of silt, slush and mud. For once the tramcars in the vicinity Were left severely alone. While the rainstorm brought trouble of this sort in its train, the main consideration is the tremendous benefit' it has brought to gardens, crops and feed for stock. With the rain that fell on Sunday the pastures have now received a full measure of the moisture they were so badly needing. In fact the countryside generally feels that it has been smiled upon more sweetly that it anticipated, even in its wildest dream?