DOWNPOUR IN AUCKLAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18632, 16 February 1935, Page 5

DOWNPOUR IN AUCKLAND

31IN. IN FEW HOURS

SWIMMING IN STREET

WAREHOUSES DAMAGED

(Por Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day

Torrential rain of exceptional severity fell in Auckland and suburbs yesterday afternoon,i causing considerable damage in shops and warehouses in the lower parts of the city and in the low-lying areas in the suburbs. A dozen young men had the unusual experience of swimming almost in the heart of the city'. Ciad only in football shorts, they plunged around up to their waists in water in Fort street lane in an effort to locate and clear some of the storm water gratings, and in the intervals of their labors they swam about and even took shallow dives before a large, crowd of amused spectators. Fort street lane and the warehouses abutting on it always suffer when heavy rainfall coincides with a fairly high tide, but yesterday’s experience is considered to have been the - worst case of flooding for many years. By 4.30 p.m. the water was over 3ft deep at. the lowest part of the lane. In many warehouses, the cellars were flooded to a depth of 2ft. and over. In one warehouse, the solid concrete floor was cracked open by subterranean water pressure, and the whole cellar was covered to a depth of 2ft.

FIRE ENGINE UTILISED The flood showed no signs of receding, and finally a machine from the Central Fire Brigade was despatched to the scene. Two leads were connected with a powerful pump; and at the rate of 350 gallons a minute the lane was ptimped dry. In Fort street, a largo area of wooden paving blocks was forced up by the pressure of water from the overloaded main. Heavy rain in the early hours of the morning was followed by warm and humid conditions, but, shortly after .1 o’clock, the weather again become thick, and, following a minoi cloudburst, the storm broke in full force and continued unabated for two hours.

The rain was accompanied by a mild electrical storm. By 4 o’clock, the wind, which had been light from the north-east, swung round to the southwest, with a quick improvement in conditions, allowing thousands of shoppers who had been marooned under shop verandahs for most of the afternoon, to make for their homes. The total fall from midnight to 4 p.m. was 4.40 in., of ‘which probably three and a-half inches fell during the afternoon. At the height of the storm, rain was falling at the rate of two inches an hour, and with the city drainage system failing to cope with the water, the streets were awash/-,