SEVERE FLOODS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2251, 22 April 1897, Page 19

SEVERE FLOODS.

I GREAT DAMAGE IN HAWKE'S | BAY. TWELVE LIVES KNOWN TO BE LOST. AN APPEAL FOR AID. « DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT FROM £80,000 TO £100,000. Wellington, April 18. Information was received irom Hastiogs 1 to-day by the secretary of the General Post • Office to the. effect that the most disastrous flood in the history of Hawke's Bay was experienced there since Friday, and the damage to the roads and bridges, cVfficult to estimate, will be some thousands Bridges afc Omahu and Radcliffe were washed away, and Clive is almost couaple'.ely submerged. Two Lives are known to be lost, and others are airnest certain to have been. At Meanee, whioh is almost unapproachable, she effect of the fkods must be disastrous in the extreme. Two rescue boats, containing five mtn each, which left for Parndou have not sites been heard of, and it is feared that they have been swept to sea and lost. In one boat was Sergeant Donovan, of the police. Captain M'Cartmy and Mr Gassin were it> one bo»t, but | the names or the others ai'e unknown, I Messrs Bradber and Cou-ghlin are also re- ' ported to have been drowned. ! The damage to the railway line by waihouts, &?., is very extensive, and it will be a couplo of months before it is repaired. Meanwhile the headquarters of the railway stationmaster have been removed to Hastings. Between Farndon and Tomoana the Awatoto River repUces the railway line. All suburban small iarm-rs have been practically ruined. Between Petane and Tarawera several bridges have been washed away. Although there is a slight interruption of railway traffic in the Manawatu Gorge, no great damage hus been done in the district. Settlers having plenty ot" warning removed their stock to high ground. Hastings, April 19. By far ths moat disastrous floods, both as regards loss of life and proparty, ever oxperi- j enced occurred on Friday night. It wined I heavily on Thursday and Friday morning, llin being registered. Thera was a good deal of flood water on the low-lying lands, but nothing unusual at the time of henvy rains, and settlers removed their steck to higher lands. On the plains the rain had ceased, and nobody auticiI paled further troable, bat ju3t after dark THE TUTAEKURI BROKE ITS BANK above Tarad&Je, and an immense body of water poured through the township toward* Napier. ! Almost simultaneously the Waitangi and Nga- | ruroro, bucked up by tha heavy sea, . broke iuward through the railway line into the .lagcoa joining the waters of the Tutsekuri. ! The result was a rise of 4-ffc to sft in a few i minutes. The lower part of NAPIER "WAS SUDDUNLY COVERED "WITH WATER which rushed through the streets in a raging torreut, flooding some of the houses to the | extent of sft and 6ft. Practically all the j houses and shops on the flat«, except those on j the higher ground near the beach, were flooded, j But boats were promptly manned to remove ; the people from the most threatened hou3es ! and no lives weie lost, though a good deal of j property was destroyed. la the meantime URGENT REQUESTS FOR BOATS came from the cjuutry, where many settlers had had to take to the roofs of their houses to e&cape the flood waters. A number of boats went out and saved many lives, the rescued , ones being carried to the hotels and two-storeyed j houses, but unhappily two of the boats which i set out for Clive never reached there, and there , can be no doubt that they were swamped in the ! ragiug torrent, and all the occupants drowned. . These were :—: — j Police Sergeant O'Donovan. Constable Stephenson, of the local police force. Rose, a commercial traveller, visiting the town. O'Born, draper, a recent arrival from Timara. F. CaseiD, storeman. John Prebble, juu., a labourer. A. M'Artney, licensee of the Albion Hotel. Brierly, a wheelwright. Ansel), a carpenter. Chambers, a blackimith. AH hope that any were saved is abandoned. It is rumoured thah a numbar of- fatal casualties have occurred in the country, but the only authenticated cases are those of James Cunningham, shepherd at Chesterhope, and | James Broadbont, settler, 'Farndon. The waters have now subsided, and though | i'u is difficult to get about the country, owing to { the bridges and roads b&ing washed a.way, and railway, telegraph, and telephone wires all being down, some idea can be formed of THE EXTENT OP THE DISASTER. Over an enormous area practically not ahead of stock remains alive. On Chester-hope alone 8000 sheep and a, herd of pedigree polled Angus cattle perished. Many s&ttlers have lost j from 500 to 1500 sheep. Fences have been J washed aw*y in eTery direction, several houses have gone out to sea, the land is covered with several feet of silt, and the scene of desolation is indescribable. Dczens of settlers have LOST EVERY HEAD OF STOCK, I gardens and orchards hive been swept away, and they are faced by ruin. The County Council ! will be a ssvere sufferer. The roads aro terribly ! cut up in all directions, vehicular traffic being suspended. The Waitangi and Omahu bridges are entirely washed away, several spans of the j Redcl ffo bridge have gone, and other bridges are strained and damaged. The Government bridge at Upper Mohaka, ou the Taupo road, I which was injured two years ago and never re- ' paired, has disappeared ; and twospans of a large ' bridge over the Lower Mohaka, recently erected J at a cost of £WOO, have gone. Two other bridges on the County Council's pert of the Taupo road were washed away. A great part of the railway line between Napier and Hastings was washed away, and it will take at least a month to put it right. THE DAMAGE IS ESTIMATED AT £30,000. At present trains cannot come further north than Te Ante, whence a coach service to Napier is being organised, bat in a few days the lino should be repaired to Hastings. Telegraphic communication between Napier and the north is all right, the only gap being between Napier and Htstiogs, which it is -expected will ( soon be restored. i