THE RAINSTORM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13644, 11 July 1908, Page 3

THE RAINSTORM.

RAILWAY TRAFFIC RESTORED

A TRIP OF OBSERVATION

TIMARU TO OAMARU

The great raiii storm which had been

" t-apering ofi" during tlie previous day, was finally and unnusuikabiy ended yesterday morning, for the sun shone cheerfully from a lightly flecked sky. The return of the sun to visibility was hailed with pleasure by everybody, his brightness putting a cheerful complexion on the whole face of nature, though some muddy places required un' optimistic spirit in the observer to see anything cheerful about them. The streets in town were so well washed by the rain .that in general they were in fairly good order, save where the drainage works had provided ridges of clay to tie softened and washed about. The sea continuel heavy, but it had gom) down considerably since the day beiore. The storm had left ugly tracts of Us power oil Caroline Bay Bands, in h japs of kelp torn off the reefs and made " dirt" of, "matter in the wrong place." Looking further afield, Alt. Four Peaks and Mt. Peel, with their foothills snow clad to the foot were a magnificent sight. Their clear whiteness in the sunlight was contrasted with multitudinous shauows in the {sleeper gullies, and this brought out the inequalities of their surface most clearly. The western range beyond Fairlie was to a large extent obscured by clouds, but they could be seen to be white at the 7 foot, and" Fox's Peak projected above the cloud band, a brilliant pinnacle of whiteness. Hunters range, lying nearer, was even handsomer. It appeared to be thickly . coated with snow oil the summit, and Mt. Ninirod, the great hump at the head of (lie Pareora and Waihao rivers, resembling Chalmers spire in this respect was conspicuous from many points in Timaru. TRAIN SERVICE RESTORED. The storm being eneded, and most of its effects having been remedied and having remedied themselves, the principal question of general interest was. " Will' the train service south be restored to-day"? Inquiry at the railway station elicited the information that the usual morning trains had not been started, as it was desired to keep the line clear for the repairers, but the express services would be resumed, the only break that remained unpatched, baing a damaged approach to the Waihao bridge. The latest information, just before the first express from Christchurcli arrived was to the effect that it was doubtful whether the first expresses would be able to get over the weak spot, but if not, they would meet there, instead'of at Studholme and exchange passengers and mails. At Studholme, however, the word -.vent round that the trains would get. through, the expresses crossing there as iusual, and the south-going tram had not long ~to wait before the other came in sight. Both trains were shorter than usual and drawn by much smaller enkines, much of the road-bed being too soft to carry the heavy engines ordinarily attached to the expresses. DAMAGE AND REPAIRS. How the trains got through yesterday between Timaru and Oamaru, and why they did not get through the before, is roughly indicated in the following notes by a " Herald" reporter ' who . made a a trip down to Oamaru 'yesterday. An early observation was the fact that, the Otipua lagoon was low, a broad gap through the of the beach nearly opposite the bridge, showing where the tiood waters had made their escape. .All the smaller lagoons at the mouths of creeks draining the downs between Timaru and the Pareora had similarly broken tiirough the beach and emptied themselvesPighunting Creek, the largest of them, had made a gap nearly two chains wide and severid feet in depth. Ploughed paddocks on the slopes of spurs showed , effects of the great rains, in narrow gutters scoured down to the sub-soil from top to bottom of the slopes, and at the fuot of each miniature torrent course in he bottom of the gully was spread out a. smooth sheet of soil, dropped where the current lost its carrying power in a pool. In some fields there were many of these rain-washed furrows. With a heavy sea running for several days, passengers who were familiar with the remains of the Elginshire expected to see some notable alteration in the appearance of the derelict. 'An alteration, there was, but still tlie tough old iron relic resisted well the attack of the waves. The remnant of a week ago had subsided mi the port side, so that the propeller ,is submerged, at ail events afc high tide, but the starboard side' still hangs" high up. and iur out of the water. The Pareora river had been very much higher, but still ran thick in two strong streams on each side, and flowed to sea through a wide opening-in the beach. The riverbed had been a rather pretty scene before the flood, with its thicik growth of gorse, richly green, and neatly cropped by nibbling sheep. The flood had changed its pretty neatness to ugliness by lodging rubbish in every bush and bending them over down stream by the pressure of the current. Anything less picturesque at present it would be difficult to imagine. Worse than this, from a practical point of view, was tlie observation that a strong southern stream was not flowing beneath the bridge, but beyond it, and this indicates that this southern retaining bank had been breached. Nothing of note was observed between the Pareora and Otaio. The latter stream still ran thick and strong, and escaped | through the beach by an opening close to the southern terrace. THE DAMAGED LINESoon after passing the Otaio the train ran into the damaged line. The wide flat valley through which the Otaio creek flows, near the lower Otaio school, had been the scene of a great rush of water, in which the two creek channels were next to useless. The stream spread out to a breadth of several chains! and brought down and left on the paddocks to the right and on the swamp to the,left of the line, a great quantity of silt, sand and gravel, and in crossing the line scoured out the ballast in a great many short spaces. A footbridge over one of the creeks on the main by, was shifted across the road. This was the first bit of bad line, and the carriage .window were filled with eyes and there were exclamations as the train passed very slowly over it. There were many places were such deliberate driving was resorted to before Oamaru was reached. At one or two points in tliis Otaio flat the permanent way was completely washed out, and in such cases the line was temporarily held up by stacks of sleepers. Where the ballast only was gone, the remedy applied was to shovel up spare shingle from the side of the track, and repack the sleepers with a temporary sufficiency for liglit traffic and slow paces, to be improved and made sound again when more pressing demands had. been complied with. Just beyond the creeks, a quaint-looking result of the flood was seen in a . belt of washedout turnips, marking out a meandering liighwater line across a grass paddock. A little further on, the flood had played havoc with a crop of carrots, ; a lot of which had been dug and bagged, and the bags were tumbled about. > A turnnip paddock presented a very odd api)e;iraiice too, all tlie loose soil having been scoured away, leaving the oval roots, washed clean \{iud bare, standing up stiffly in the ail*.' Some cultivated fields presented a depressing appearance, ■ especiallv some that had had young crops of wheat- in them, the soil having been brush-harrowed, so to 6peak, by the flood, and then thinly plastered with, mud.

The Makikihi stream had. been very high, but having a freer exit lo the 6ea it had not spread beyond its recognised limits at the railway line. In the Hook Valley the occurrences of the Otaio were repeated,' the ineffectual creeks being lost in a stream that spread over the paddocks tb a width of half a mile or more, drifting loose soil about, filling fences with rubbish and breaking them down; and, as at Otaio, the railway acted as a temporary dam until the flood overflowed it, and the ballast was car-, ried over the side in many places. Just beyond Hook station there was a good deal of this minor damage. Tlie Wainono creek had. overflowed , in the same manner, and with the same results as there were numerous small-wash-puts between Hook and Studholme, one. of them close to the Studholme signal post. There was a good deal of water lying on the flats of Hook Valley. WAINONO CULVERT CARRIED AWAY. Wainono lake was very full. A Waimate resident said lie had never seen it so high before. This lake is a. sheet of water of shape;that stretches - along the sea coast for a distance of about seven miles. It receives the waters of the Hook creek, Wainiate creek and Waihao rivers. Thtse streams-in flood times pour into the lake an enormous quantity of water, and in its natural state the lake used to fill and inundate a large "area of valuable land. A local auth-. ority, the Wainono Drainage Board, was created a good many years ago for the purpose of controlling these inundations. The Board caused to be. constructed an. expensive and very strong timber culvert, 12 feet wide and 4ft deep, through the beach, for the purpose of draining the lake at ordinary times, and of setting up a scour in times of flood, the- flood then ojjening up a wide channel through the shingle bank. This culvert, a which had been of great use in both directions,, was unfortunately destroyed by the recent flood. A resident of the locality happened to see it go. In the couise of years the 6cours which it had been the means of setting up had cut away the river side of the shingle bank of the beach, so that the culvert projected into the lagoon for some distance, though when built its inner end was just flush with the ban. The Waihao - enters the*> lagoon a mile and a -half south of the outlet, and • thb strong stream of the river, running along the beach, caught the culvert broad side on, swayed' it to and fro for a time and then capsized it, and carried it bodily away. The culvert cost between £IOOO and £ISOO, and the neoessitv lor ttome such provision' for helping flood waters to escape will ..require its',. reconstruction. Much satisfaction was felt by passengers going south, when the word was passed round at Studholme that the express from Dunedin was coming through,, and they had not long to wait for its appearance. It was noted that the few cars of the train were' full of passengers,; and the mail van stacked high with mail hags. CROSSING THE WAIHAO. Approaching the Waihao river the part of Waikakahi to the right hand was a very .pretty sight, in the sunshine, the. numerous houses on the slight slop© up to the foot of the downs all showing up well. Nearing the bridge the train slowed ujp and pioceeded to' cross at a walking p;ice ; giving the passengers an opportunity to see tlie nature of the damage which had caused so much trouble. The Waihao was now running in tw.o good-sized streams, and when on the bridge it could be seen -., that the northern one had made a direct attack on the bank from a little above the bridge to the bridge itself, and the somewhat soft • shingly formation had crumbled away .'under the. wear and tear of the swift stream.. The.river in its coudition of yesterday s could have done no such damage, but the aspect" of t-lie riverbed showed that when tlie flood was at its height the Waihao was a really formidable river: It had been "bank to bank," in a wider sense than usual, .for paddocks on -the south side had. become a streambed, and their fences were levelled. The effect of the attack on the northern bank was to gouge it away for a width of several feet and create a short gap bet-ween " the end ' of the bridge' and the: solid bank. This the repairing staff, under the direction of Mr Biss, District Engineer, had bridged over by the use of big beams, supported by building up numbers of sleepers, making a fairly good temporary extension of the bridge. Itappears to be necessary to add another pier .of piling to make the . extension permanent, and then to throw down, a strongapron: of -rubble >to.' prevent?-' a" renewal of the damage suffered this week. A; train load of 20 six-ton trucks of rubble froma railway quarry at Kaituna, on the Little River line, , now stands'in the Timaru yard, brought down for that purpose. In passing over the-- Waikakahi plain a good deal of water was lying in the lower grounds, and some small washouts had been attended to. An . odd, effect of the

storm was seen at the cutting up the last and highest- tcrrac© of the Waitaki. A sheet of water h?id flowed over the plain above, crossed, the main road, reached the rail>vay above and - alongside the. cutting, flowed down this at a great rate, and scoured out deep pits close besides the line in the fall of the terraces, ■' where the shingle was easily carried off. Fortunately the scour just missed the line. The broad shingle plain of the Steward Settlement iiolds tho same relation to the large area of downs behind, as the, Levels and : Waikakabi plains do to the downs behind them. The stormwaters from the downs gullies , having no defined channels to follow over the plain's, spread, out in broad sheets. Between the Waitaki and Pukeuri there were visible enough the signs of the passage of three or four of such sheets of water, one of them fully a'niile wide, and there was still much water lying on the wide hollows. Fences were full of rubbish, soil 'Jisturbed, the road well scoured, and the railway ballast disturbed at many points. The worst' and wettest place 'was. between Hilderthrope 'and Rich- j mond, where ; a train, was .held up for a time by a wash-out on each side of it. The Oamaru downs are of large extent and the amount of storm water flowed over the plain was enornif"" It wa» | stated in Oamaru that, the ramiall. on the downs was at times quite phenomenal. Between Pukeuri ana Oamaru there was much water lying on the paddocks, every l hollow—and there are a great many peculiar circular and aval' shallows in the ground—was full of water. The town of Oamaru had apparently''got over its visi- . tation. . The creek had.been high, but its channel is deep and its mouth free to tip sea. / The ordinary afternoon local train service was resumed: yesterday. The trains were somewhat delayed, owing to their having to crawl over the soft ground (with some unsteadiness too- on the .loose temporary ballasting) but the delay was only moderate, the Duncdin express arriving at- | Timaru less than an hour late. : ! The Geraldine mail coach resumed, travelling by the ordinary route yesterday afternoon; and managed to get through _ by McKenzie's 1 crossing without much: difficulty. Considerable scouring had taken place in the river-bed. and several strong streams were running across the road. The ltoqd scoured out a hole at the ford by the swing bridge, and one or two venturesome,-spirits in attempting to cross yuslerdav wei-c rewarded \\ uh a vetting. The Waihi, the Opihi and Temuka had all subsided to little above their ordinary level yesterday, -though.- there was still a ■good deal of water, lying about on -paddocks and roadsides. One noticeable effect of the rain on the country roads was llicy were remarkably clean. This was due no doubt to the almost total cessation of traffic and . the heavy downpour washing all the finer top-dressing ofi before there was time for mud puddles to form. ■■■■■■■. . The weather cleared at Pleasant ..Point on Thursday night. The fall of. rain this week was 6.87 inches and lust week 3.65 inches, making a total of 10.50 inches^ for 14- da vs. The flood waters were rapidly falling vesterday. The rainfall at St, Andiews for the three duvs ending, noon on Thursday was 6 inched making 9i inches for the past two weeks. Most of the. flat ground between St. Andrews and the Pareora river was covered with sheets, of .water.' The river made a fresh, track for itself behind the reci-ufcty erec.ed protection works, ji«>l above the main road. Mr Geo. Lvall, who has resided in the district for many years says that-the rainfall was the heaviest he has known. . , Our Temuka correspondent -nimts: After the long spell of heavy ram which continued up to ikursday .at 10 p.m.,. though not so severe-us, in. the early part, of the week, the weather-broke yesterday morning and the sun shone; for teyeial hours. The flood has greatly subsided during the past twenty-four _ hoin6, and though the Temuka and Opihi are carrying a lot of water there w npw no danger. The borough staff is busily epgaged impairing the washouts and adjusting damage done to street crossings. From Monday, at 10 p.m. to Thursday at 10 p.m., the ruinfull recorded at Temuka. was 4.89 inches, and this is considered 1 he heaviest fall experienced tsince the big flood of 1868. . On the Opihi going down it was discovered to-day that a small break in'the protective works on the upper end had - been caused by- the flood. Yesterday afternoon _Mr Billing*, county overseer, was busy with his staff: •of-.men in effecting repanu. - •: The rainfall fromi' Monday at 5 p.m. to Thursday at 10 a.m., was' 7£ inches atWaimate. Many old residents say they have not wen su'cli a rush of water since 1868-. Tlie-storm, did considerable 'damage. The'intake of. the town-water supply was seriously damaged, about onev third of the dam being carried - away.

Lower down the creek scoured the bar© some chains, of p pt i effeoted. connection. Repairs areJwmg temporarily, and an engineer 1^0 -be T™tfc ™<te «P«. iog ol tlin l»k» tiom tbe into the sea were completely destroyed, theheavy sea having tilted them up, and the fresh water .flood carried : them aw ay. Sere are many emallei;- waahoute in deferent parts of' the county, and tlie en XZI and his gangs will be busy for lfonie months making up the repano ne- ° The^damage caused to the ■ Opihi bridge at Pleasant Point consisted in the washing away of about, 20 feet of the earth approach on -the Pleasant Point end, thus making the bridge useless until repairs are effected. Per Press Association. ■ .m OAMARU, July 1°- . /Suffici&ft repairs will have been effected to the railway in this district to allow o all the services being resumed, on baturdav. ■ The train to Tokarahi. rani through to-dav, and that to Kurow, which line lias iJeen blocked sincd Tuesday, will run to-morrow. i; ■ , . From 18 to 36 inches of Bnowhave lal-, fen in the' Upper Waitaki. The sheep are mostly on the lower parts of the runs, but it will be some tune before this depth of snow melts and'•there may be a good many losses. POSITION IN OTAGO. v THE GREAT SNOWFALL. VERY SERIOUS LOSSES. DUNEDIN, Julylo. The llood on the . Taieri plain has subsided'four feet. The railways south are clear as far as Allahton to which .. trains 5 were run, passengers going by coach; along the flooded road to Waihola where ,the ( trains wait. The line Allanton , and/Waihola is .badly damaged. I The loss of'slock' is. very considerable, but the extent of the losses cannot yet be even approximately gauged. Most of tne plain is still covered with .water surroundlric a multitude bi' hiacceswbie' inlands, where cattle may have sheltered. Henley, and Otokia are still partially submerged and a, good deal of damage has been done to property. All the large bridges ai e safe, but the- approaches to most of the small ones- are more or less damaged. Part of the approach to the West Taieri bridge was washed away. Serious .damage has been done to the railway and telegraph lines on the Otago Central and it will probably cost a great deal to effect,, repairs. There is. still about two feet .of snow near Ranfurly. The two trains on Wednesday had a trying experience. Ihe goods' train was stuck in. four feet ot snow near Rough Ridg© for nearly "two. hours. Later another train with twelve passengers, including «t coupl© on. their honeymoon, tried to push through, but both got embedded. A ballast engine was sent in relief but got ; no ne.arer than a quarter of a mile. Finally the passengers struggled back in the. ballast engine, .arriving at Rough Ridge at 2 a.m. on Thursday. The bride fainted from exhaustion. On Thursday a passenger train got out and returned to Rough Ridge, but the goods train engine - in ! pulling out left the rails and is still derailed. , To-day men started shovelling three feet of snow off six miles of line near Wedderburn. At Naseby today a party was busily engaged .'digging isolated people out of the snow. It is reported that near Ryeburn thike is six feet of snow. Alexandra is completely isolated and there will probably be a considerable loss of stock on high cquutry. Snow has ceased falling at Naseby-and the coach driver got the "mails to > Ranfurly on horseback for -the first time in'three days. The mails and railway service are practically restored, but the Outram line is still blocked. . . The acting chajrman of the Taieri Brainage Board sent a telegram to the Minister of Lauds to-night, asking for a Government advance of £IOOO to effect repairs in the embankment, which have given way in seven places, the ■ Board being without funds at present.