OTAGO CLOUDBURST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18579, 13 December 1934, Page 9

OTAGO CLOUDBURST

A WALL OF WATER »';. ' i ■ CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE After -weeks of scorching summer heafc ; the district between Roxburgh and Alexandra was visited recently by one of the heaviest thunderstorms have been experiened in that locality for many years. Just after 1 o’clock, states the Otago Daily Times,. a mass of clouds moved up from the south, borne on the wings of a fiery wind, and accompanied by ominous rolls - of thunder. Threequarters of an hour later the deluge began, and to the accompaniment of blinding flashes of lightning and the crashing of thunder, the rain descended in a constant Stream, so that the creeks, which were practically empty till 2.15 p.m., instantly became raging torrents. k:.. . V 7, Miners working in Obelisk Greek, at Fruitlands, saw a roaring wall of water approaching from above and had no iitne to rescue their tools, before'.it was Upon their workings, sweeping everything away, including a fortnight s work. At Butcher’s Creek it was the, -same, and in no time 200 beads of water were tearing down a course that Nature built for three or four heads. Sere, too, miners were caught by surprise, and cradles and boxes went sailing away like corks. Such things have happened on the Molyneux River, but on the creeks it seemed unnatural. - - 1 - - 'Further south, from all accounts, it was worse, and the precipitous bed of Gorge Creek, which crosses the main road at the. foot of a steep hill and a sharp bend, carried an angry river that shot boulders from its .course like bullets an,d, washed over the road, doing a great deal of damage and making the road impassable for traffic. At Baker’s .Creek, also, there was a washout on the road which .prevented the service car from getting through. Heavy though,the rain was on the road and below, along the ridge of the Old Man Range it must have been nothing less than a’ cloudburst to accoun t loi the amount of water that came down the creeks and, old washouts. By 7 o’clock the sun was shining brightly again, and the following day the Public Works Department was able to take stock of the damage, which was very considerable.

A peculiar feature of the storm was its clearly defined boundary. People in Alexandra, only six miles from Butcher’s, had no suspicion of what ♦ ■wag going on, and the streets remained dry and dusty all day long.