LEVUKA FLOODED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17156, 5 October 1926, Page 7

LEVUKA FLOODED

EXCEPTIONAL RAINFALL DAMAGE TOTALS £IO,OOO STEEETS UNDER WATEE (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. Writing from Suva under date of September 29, the Herald's special correspondent says a disastrous flood occurred .at Levuki last Friday. A resident reports that at about 11 a.m. he heard two loud claps of thunder, and then what he took to be a third. Now he savs he believes it was a low-flying, heavy cloud hitting a volcanic cliff at the back of the town. In a moment a downpour of rain flooded the streets. The creek runs from down a fissure in the mountain behind the town through a populous portion of the town to the harbor. In an hour and a half seven inches of rain fell. The torrent rushed ! down the creek, carrying everything before it. Meeting bridges, below the. debris gathered, and the waters backed up, flooding all the business places which lie along the waterfront. Then the force of the current smashed two concrete buildings in the main street, carrying a mass of concrete into the harbor as if it were a feather. The. water supplv was at once broken, anil rendered!: useless. Both swimming baths' were smashed, and many premises, . including the Town Hall and Masonic hall, were flooded to a depth varying from two to four feet. .", SOME HEAVY LOSSES. The chief loser, outside the Municipal " Council, whose losses total over £SOOO, is Messrs. Burns, Philp and Co., who "estimate their loss at £3OOO. Some young men were baching in a house on the hillside. When they went home for lunch they could not find their house. A landslide had' taken it across the road into a gully, a movement rather damaging to the artistic appearance of the dwelling. Many other houses were damaged, and landslides provided an element of danger for a while. Altogether five bridges were washed away. Most of the residents went about in,bathing costumes. From 9 a.m. on Friday until 9 a.m. on Saturday fourteen inches of rain fell in Levuka. Happily there was no loss of life, although a lady school teacher had a narroiv escape. The flood: was the. worst disaster that has visitedi in the last 37 years. The total damage i* estimated at over £IO,OOO.