FOUR HOMES WRECKED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21014, 18 April 1938, Page 9

FOUR HOMES WRECKED

Overwhelmed by Earth Slides Farmer Succumbs to Shock By Telegraph—Pres? Association BLENHEIM, April 16. Following a terrific storm —the severest in the memory of the settlers in Outer Pelorous Sound, a large landslide swept down the steep hillside in Admiralty Bay, near French Pass, completely smashing the new homestead of Robert Sharron Turner, aged 53, who had a weak heart, and later succumbed from the shock of his nerve-wracking experience. ' Turner, his w'ife and two sons were in the house early on Thursday evening, when the building was struck by an avalanche without warning. They managed to escape only in time, before masses of spoil wrecked the dwelling, which was erected to replace one destroyed by a fire a few months ago. Apparently the flooded creek near the house undermined the top of the slope, which, saturated by the rain, slid straight down on to the dwelling. The family saved only a few personal belongings, and the house and furniture were ruined. In the next bay, Puketea Bay. three houses, occupied by Mr E. Guard and his two sons, were Llso in the line of the storm, and were completely wrecked. A message from Nelson says that at 6.30 on Thursday afternoon there was a terrific electric storm over Mt. Turner, causing the knives and forks on the table to jump about. It was then that the residents decided to move. The men went down to the creek, but a wall of water swept down, and only by clinging to a fence did they escape being washed away. They then dashed back to the house and carried the womenfolk across the torrent to a whare which was out of the line of the flood. The creek, which some chains behind the dwelling winds away, then broke its banks, and poured with devastating force on to the house. The bank near the back door was washed out, and the area was filled up with tons of boulders. At the back of the house the boulders are ten feet deep, extending back for six or seven chains. Apparently the creek at the back of the house undermined the slope, which shifted on to the back of the dwelling. At 11 o’clock the three men went up the creek where it had broken through, and with difficulty dammed it up to turn it back onto its original course. “It was uncanny to hear the roar of slips coming down in all directions,” said Mr H. M. Baker, an eye-witness. “There were huge landslides on Mt. Turner, and boulders were carried right down by the river to the house. Standing at the door of the whare, we could hear boulders thundering down the creek bed, and crashing against the back of the Louse. All the houses round Admiralty Bay were affected to some extent, but nc’ all so badly as the Turners’ or the Guards’. The Turners came by launch to Nelson yesterday, bringing the body of their father.

Telephone communication with this portion of the Sounds is cut off. The scene at Puketea Bay is also appalling. The only thing saved is a boat shed. Thousands of tons of boulders and rocks came down, and covered four acres where the houses stood. One of the Guards’ houses has only the roof showing. Some of the rocks brought down are estimated to weigh more than thirty tons.