FLOODS IN THE NORTH

Southland Times, Issue 19101, 20 November 1923, Page 5

FLOODS IN THE NORTH

WAIRAU RIVER OVERFLOWS. DAMAGE TO PUBLIC WORKS. (Per United Press Association.) BLENHEIM, November 19. Heavy rain in the back country resulted in the Wairau River developing a high flood during Saturday. The branch bridge 45 miles from Blenheim on the new Blen-heim-West Coast road was again seriously damaged, three spans at the Blenheim end being washed out. It is eight years since this bridge was first constructed, and during the whole of that time it has been useless for traffic owing to repeated flood damage. There is an agitation now to have the site shifted. In the Spring Creek district, eight miles from Blenheim, the river flowed through a gap in the bank caused by the May flood, and inundated a fairly wide area of farm land, much of which has just been sown in peas. The River Board's new bank at Whittle’s Bend was very severely tested. It stood up to the strain, showing that the board has now solved the flood problem as far as farm lands are concerned. The railway between Picton and Blenheim suffered a series of wash-outs, but traffic ’is being maintained. Passengers are transferred across the damaged portions of the line, w’hich will be repaired by night.