UTTER RUIN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19623, 5 May 1938, Page 15

UTTER RUIN

TANGOIO VALLEY ROAD DISAPPEARS The peaceful willow-fringed valley of Tangoio, famous as a rendezvous for picnickers, has been completely wiped out by the flood which swept down from the hills last week. In its place lies an. indescribable mass of utter ruin. Silt, some six and eight feet deep, covers the whole valley from the foot of the road to the falls to the entrance of the valley from the southern side. The road is gone and it is only by sheer and determined effort that the traveller is able to pass through the once beautiful valley so well known to Hawke's Bay people. Intermingled with the silt are huge boulders and logs, swept down from the gulleys by the raging torrent ot last week, which swept all before it in its mad rush to the sea. Human effort was unavailing in its attempt to save stock and investiga- ' tion at the week-end revealed masses of carcases strewn over the desert ol mud Which covers the once beautiful Tangoio. The road through the valley lias completely disappeared—covered over by slips which rolled down from the slopes with a roar like thunder. Here and there along the road can be seen portions of cars, in some cases only the hood and a portion of the windscreen showing- above the sea of silt around them. The lops of telephone poles are just free from the piles of boulders and logs heaped against them and those houses not damaged by slips have been ruined by water. , "Fences have been swept away and what stock remained alive is wandering aimlessly through the valley searching for food. Buildings Saved The schoolhouse and residence were the only two buildings in the whole district to escape serious damage, their comparative safety being attributed to the presence of a large hedge which surrounds the buildings on three sides. After ploughing their way through mud almost up to the waist, visitors to the vallev last week-end were able to pick their way to the foot of the road to the falls and it was observed that where huge slips had not completely covered the road, the road had slipped away, making progress on foot probably the only means of progress. In parts of the valley the stream has altered its course and now runs where the road used to be, and it is doubtful whether the road can ever go that way again. Grim evidence of the night of terror spent by Mr. McGregor, A.A. representative of Gisborne and Miss Skinner, is the car in which they were travelling, buried in five feet of silt, lying by the roadside. Tangoio was succoured by means a a plane, and residents pay a glowing tribute to the daring of the pilots who swooped down to 100 ft. to deliver goods, which in every case except one —in which the butter landed firstwere received intact. Kaiwaka's Plight The appearance of the countryside at Kaiwaka has been completely altered. Thousands of slips disfigure the hillsides and will greatly reduce the grazing area of the country. Miles of fencing have been destroyed and stock lost. The main Kaiwaka road from the top of the Devil's Elbow to four miles into the settlement has escaped serious damage. "Darkie's Spur" is blocked and the Kaiwaka south road I is blocked by hundreds of slips and washouts. The bridge across the Te N'garu stream has collapsed.