HOUSES EVACUATED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25849, 21 May 1945, Page 4

HOUSES EVACUATED

FLOODS IN CHRISTCHURCH CAR PARTY’S FORTUNATE ESCAPE (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 20 Houses had to be evacuated in the low-lying parts of Christchurch to-day, when the city suffered its worst flooding for very many years. Heavy, drizzling rain, driven by a high southwesterly wind, fell almost incessantly throughout the week-end, and the natural and artificial watercourses proved inadequate to carry off the W Fears that the country districts would suffer as they did in February were fortunately not justified, although some damage was done. The rain was largely coastal, and apparently the fall in the catchment argqg of the larger rivers was not comparable with that of February. Christchurch and the districts surrounding Banks Peninsula met the full force of the storm. The township of Little River was invaded by flood waters from Lake Forsyth, and 52 passengers from railway buses were stranded at the Lake Forsyth Hotel. Provisions were eventually despatched to them by means of an army tank transporter. Houses at Little River had to be evacuated. The southern approach of the northern Waihao bridge, in South Canterbury, was washed out, and a motor car ran over the end of the bridge into deep water, where it overturned. Fortunately, the occupants escaped with nothing worse than a ducking. The train from Invercargill, which was due at 6.35 p.m. yesterday, was delayed by a slip at Waitati, and reached Christchurch at 6.15 a.m. today. Slips on two sections of the railway lines have caused a revision of the services for to-morrow. Passengers by the Main Trunk line to Blenheim will' be taken by bus from Parnassus to Kaikoura, as an extensive slip has dccurred in the Hawkswood cutting.