HEAVY RAIN, THUNDERSTORM, AND FLOOD IN NELSON.

Colonist, Volume X, Issue X, 12 February 1867, Page 3

HEAVY RAIN, THUNDERSTORM, AND FLOOD IN NELSON.

(From The Cdlonist, Tuesday, January 29.)

EabliY on Monday morning, the people of Nelson awoke —that is to say those whom the storm permitted to sleep—awoke to find themselves or their neighbors more or less closely surrounded with water, or more or less the victims of landslips. For the past fortnight, indeed, during all the summer yet gone, there has been more than the usual number of rainy days. The past week has been very wet, and on Friday and Saturday a good deal of rain fell. Sunday looked lowering, and about five o'clock in the afternoon, a steady rain set in, increasing in force as the day declined, until about ten o'clock it became a regular downpour, accompanied with exceedingly brilliant flashes of lightning and long though low peals of thunder. From ten on Sunday night till eight o'clock next morning torrents of rain fell, and every stream, and almost every street in town was flooded; and the surrounding hills showed, when daylight broke, a multiplicity of landslips, phenomena which were unknown in the flood of Ist February, 1866. TheMaifai rivor, though very high, was not in such a state of flood as on that occasion, when so much loss was caused by its overflow; but the Brook-street Valley stream, and the roadway along its banks, exhibited yesterday morning a scene of as much desolation as that of twelve months ago, with the addition of the large unsightly patches on the hill sides caused by the landslips, which destroyed many acres of good pasturage, and injured by the masses of debris they deposited a number of fine gardens, and not a few dwellings. In one, that of Mr. T. R. Fisher's, merchant, the flood swept over a trim and pretty garden, and a heavy landslip obliged Mr. Fisher and his whole household to leave the house, and find their way, through the heavy rain and the rising waters, to a neighbor's house. The bouse is considerably injured, and the furniture in some of the rooms is greatly destroyed by the liquid mud which found its way into the building. Several other houses in the immediate neighborhood suffered in a similar way, though to a less extent.

All up the Brook-street river the expensive work of fencing in its banks by piling, completed last year by the Board of Works, suffered greatly from the flood. The river went roaring and tumbling down its_too__. narrow channel, and having a wept away a temporary bridge which had been erected opposite Mr. S. Newport's premises, a portion of the structure—a large heavy log—got jammed at the new bridge built at the entrance gate of Mr. Bennett's residence, and this, impeding the current still more, directed a large body of water into the roadway of Brook-street, and against the new piling with such force that nearly half the width of the street was washed away, and the piling swept into the stream. Further up, similar obstructions, unsuitable bridges leading to dwellinghouses — bridges formed without proper public surveillance—were a fruitful source of loss and damage. They got choked, and diverted the current—which once getting behind the piling, made short work of it, and some of this was driven away to form new obstacles, and cause more damage further down.

The fine new cart bridge across the Brook-street stream at Nile-street, is a deplorable spectacle. The bridge itself, and all the wood-work, the piling and boarding remained intact for a long time, while the mistaken gravel (!) embankment behind the wooden palisading was being steadily eaten away by the undermining influence of the current; and at nightfall last night, one side of the wood-work of the embankment was swaying to and fro, and had to be held with a rope, while at both sides of the river the swollen, stream had made very large gaps in the roadway, and on the approaches to the bridge. It will cost a large sum to repair the damage here. All along Hardy-street early in the morning a stream of water ran, and the same in Bridge-street. '.They met in Waimea-street; and, from the Saltwater bridge to the Post-office, thence along Waimea-street to Hardy-street crossing, and from that point all along Toi-Toi Valley road, and along the flat of ToiToi Valley with its broad and wide ditches, and including the large expanse of flat by Vanguai'd-street, was one vast sea. Not a road, scarcely a fence was distinguishable, houses were surrounded, and from some of them in exposed situations the inhabitants had to be rescued by boat. The passenger traffic from Toi-Toi Valley to Hardy-street was conducted by means of a boat, and one passenger by that medium has reported that bis " gondola" was floated into the Post Boy Hotel, where the occupants of the boat obtained some " refreshments" at the bar floating in smooth water. There were about eighteen inches of water in the floor of the Post Boy at the time. Here about noon a car returned to take a load of persons from the vicinity of this hotel. The road, covered with water nearly as high as the horse's flanks, runs for a considerable distance between two rather deep ditches or culverts. The driver of the car, Wm. Taylor, got out to lead the horse along the road and suddenly he disappeared in one (of the ditches. On getting to the surface again ] fe began struggling with hands and feet in the air, cv lently not being a good swimmer. He thus Bank s Wai times, the men in the car some half dozen tout young fellows seemingly paralysed, and nnabl /or afraid to get down as assist him. At lest after a hard struggle he got on the road greatly exhausted, and continued to stagger to the car and lay hold of the wheel and nearly fainting was lifted in. All day this part of the city, by and in Toi-Toi valley, presented the appearance of a large troubled lake, w' I a few boats floating on its surface. In Waiinc street a good deal of boat traffic took place early in,'the day. In a building occupied for purposes of storage, Mr. H. Davis merchant had stowed a large quantity of crushed loaf sugar in barrels. The flood rose about two feet and a-half within the building, and from twenty to thirty barrels of sugar were nearly empted by the melting influence of the water, and Mr. Davis we regret to say will be a loser by this accident to the extent of abont £200.

Among the numerous landslips are several which occurred on the hills on the Haven-road. One of these took place behind Mrs. Scott's near the Steam Boat Tavern. A lot of the earth and soil in a semiliquid condition struck against the back portion of the house, forced open the back door, entered some of the apartments and passed right through the building, bursting open the front door and pouring itself into the roadway. Farther down a slip took place in the rear of the Pier Hotel, and some of the new buildings adjacent, and othera happened on the beach towards the pilot station.

At Manuka-street, a slip occurred behind Mr. Nation's dwelling-house, completely filling up his backyard. Here a large mass of earth detached itself from the property above, and slid slowly downward, a distance of some eighty or ninety feet, carrying in its centre a tall poplar tree and a lot of shrubs, and depositing them erect and flourishing in the adjoining ■garden. On the Wakapuaka road a great number of landslips have occurred, and some have taken place on the hill sides on the road to the Waimeas. One of the largest of these is on Mr. A. Qt. Jenkins' property, at Jenkins's Hill, and has done great damage to a fine large field which had lately been brought into cultivation, a great part of the tilled soil of which, with fencing, gates, &c, has been carried away. One of the principal causes of these numerous ■landslips is most probably to be found in the sharp earthquake shocks which were experienced here early last Friday morning. Then the surface of the hills tad been pretty well saturated with moisture, and the motion had doubtless loosened the superencumbent roil,, which after its being charged with the heavy sains of Sunday, became overweighted, and gravitated downwards in manifold instances, of which the neighboring hills bear witness. The farmers must have suffered severely in their wops by the rain. In some fields in the Waimea East, the uncut crop is greatly laid by the rain, one fold of oats on Mr. Sutton's farm being particularly Mentioned, while in many places the wheat which has been reaped but not gathered in, exhibits symptons of growing, The river Wairoa was in flood yesterday, out it subsided rapidly and without doing any preceptible injury either to the Wairoa Bridge or its approaches. The flood, though wrere and causing muoh bis, Which many poor people can ill afford, hat been myoh