FIVE THOUSAND HOMELESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18797, 9 February 1931, Page 2

FIVE THOUSAND HOMELESS.

Big Floods In Australia. “INDESCRIBABLE CONFUSION.” United Press Association--By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received February 8, 5.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, February 8. Upward of five thousand people were driven from their homes in Lismore, owing to floods. The town is in a stated of indescribable confusion. Speed boats are racing up and down the streets with homeless people. Members of the telephone exchange are leaving work in boats. Household furniture is floating about. There is three feet of water in the majority of the shops. Men, women and children are moving about in bathing costumes.

Carl Wilkinson, diving under a house, to rescue something, was hit on the head by a projection, and drowned. Another man, attempting to save himself by holding on to the tail of a horse, which was swimming through the torrent, was washed away, but was later rescued unconscious and resuscitated. Although the rain has ceased the rivers continue to rise and the position is serious. A disastrous flood is feared at Coraki. The river has broken the banks at several places. Farmers have been forced to flee, leaving etorck there to be drowned. All the low lying country is submerged, and the worst has yet to come. Landslides have occurred. At Kyogle, bridges have been washed away, and many houses are completely submerged. The water at places is a mile wide. DESTRUCTION IN QUEENSLAND. PLIGHT OF BRISBANE. United Press Association—By Eleotrio Telegraph—Copyright (Received February 8, 9.30 p.m.) BRISBANE, February 8. Two men and a boy have been drowned in the Brisbane floods, which are now rapidly falling. Hundreds of refugees are returning to their homes. While the tide was at its peak in Brisbane in the river on Saturday, the water was about 4ft above the wharves on the northern bank, and drowned cattle and domestic pets, which were washed down with the torrent. In the suburbs there are scenes of desolation and ruin. Smashed furniture and flattened fences are seen on all sides. Most train and tram services have resumed, and some who were forced to vacate their homes have returned to find them in a terrible condition—-mud and slush inches deep on the floors and the furniture ruined.

Creeks in the country districts arc still running strongly. The Nearang river is a raging torrent. Part of the Ipswich Road at Rocklea is 15ft under water. Only the roofs of nearly all the houses are visible. The schools have been closed. All train services to the north have ceased.

A heavy flood is predicted in several northern rivers.

Swept downstream by the flood waters in the Brisbane river, the steamer Momba rammed the lighter Sand, and then it crashed into the stem of the Mundilla, and finally ran ashore at New Farm.