HEAVY DAMAGE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16242, 17 January 1927, Page 5

HEAVY DAMAGE

STORMS IN WAITEMATA COUNTY ROADS IN SHOCKING STATE Some particulars relating to damage caused by recent storms in the Maitemata County were given by Mr. 0. Jackson, engineer to the County Council, who has returned to Auckland from a lour of inspection. “Some of the residents told me that they considered the flood to be the biggest since 1882,” said Mr. Jackson. •“Most of the serious damage was done in the Waitakere Ranges and at Muriwai. The Henderson Valley, perhaps, suffered more than any other part. A big dance hall at Ferndale was floated .off its blocks. The road to the ranges at the head of the valley was by extensive slips. Three bridges were lost by the county and it is estimated that it will cost over £4OOO to replace them, at a low assessment. One bridge \vas in the Henderson Valley, another at Swanson, which cut off the main road to Helensville, and the third was the one near Waitakere station which gives access to Te Henga and the West Coast. The roads in that vicinity were in a shocking state, particularly the road to Te Henga. To repair these roads it is estimated that the sum of £SOO will have to be spent.” Even the county councillors took a hand in repair work during the worst period of the flood. Mr. F. W. Grigg (representative of the Waitakere Riding) and the chairman (Mr. G. O’Halloran) were out with picks and shovels assisting to clear away huge piles of earth which had been dislodged on to roads by the storm. “The Sunday following Christmas Day was the time when lowlying part 9 suffered the most damage, said Mr. Grigg. “After the cloud bursts the road in Waitakere and the country round the foot of the hills were a sheet of water. It was impossible to recognise the landscape.”