SUDDEN FLOOD IMPERILS LIVES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17837, 4 May 1926, Page 1

SUDDEN FLOOD IMPERILS LIVES.

TWO MEN CUT OFF IN SWIRLING WATERS

BROUGHT ASHORE EXHAUSTED AFTER GALLANT RESCUE

(Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON, May 1. Two residents of Lower Hutt— Messrs F. Davis and Harry Duthie —have reason to consider themselves as fortunate in being alive. They are employees of the Public Works Department, and are employed on the pontoon-borne steam navvy that draws shingle from the bed of the Hutt River between the Lower Hutt Bridge and the new railway bridge. The men started work at 6 o’clock yesterday morning. but had no sooner commenced their duties when the river suddenly rose three feet in as many minutes, coming down with tremendous force. After a series, of adventures, and with the assistance of companions on the shore the two men succeeded in making dry land in an exhausted state.

The machine, on which the worked is placed in the middle of the river bed, and the shingle it lifts is used in the construction of the approach to the new railway bridge. When the men began work at 6 o’clock, the river rose very suddenly, as it frequently does after heavy rain, and its startling force swept everything before it. The men were cut off from the shore before they had time to realise their danger. News of their plight quickly spread, and in a Aery short time the eastern and western banks were crowded with people. Davis and Duthie endeavoured to make the dredge safe while those on shore concentrated on rescuing the men from their seemingly hopeless position. Try as they would, the unfortunate men could not make the dredger fast, and in the words of Davis, “It was time to get out.” Duthie tried to swim ashore, but underestimated the power of the current, and was carried to a telephone pole, a number of which stretch across the stream at this point. He grasped the pole, but it carried away. He succeeded, nevertheless, in reaching another, and climbed as high as he could up it. Meantime, the water gained in height, while the onlookers from both sides of the river became edDavis the while was busy with his own difficulties. His feelings of the moment are well illustrated in his words to a “Post” reporter: “I was certain the game was up, and I was, to be honest, almost all in.” At this point Davis was not aware that his 15*-year-old son had stripped naked and had challenged the baffling current to save his parent’s life. The boy dived in but the rushing waters beat him. He was lifted on to the bank in a bad way.

Then arrived on the scene Mr Robert Haddy, an employee of the Public Works Department. He sized up the situation in a flash, and he too stripped and entered the water, lie put up a wonderful light, but the odds were against him, and when he returned to the bank he was almost spent. Duthie and Davis, however, were still at the mercy of the flood—Duthie watching the waters round him while the pole to which he clung swayed in a sickening fashion; and Davis, who had sought safely on the cog-wheels of the derrick, was more than uneasy as the navvy lifted and lurched. By this time the river banks were thronged with people eager but helpless to save the two men.

Meanwhile Messrs 11. S. Turvey, F. Kershaw, L. Glennie, H. Fitzmaurice, and Arthur Moore, made for Gear Island, secured a boat, carried it over the hill, and with the aid of a lorry deposited the boat on the beach. Here Kershaw and Glennie set out to the rescue. Once again the current baulked matters. Undaunted, Kershaw took the boat upstream and floated it with the aid of the current to the navvy. As he passed the now almost submerged dredge, he commanded Duthie, who was still clinging to the pole, to jump. He did so, and landed safely in the boat. Davis eventually swam ashore, but was just about at his last when he reached land. Great Assistance was given by Mr A. Downer, (Assistant Engineer, Public Works), J. Barnett (Overseer. Public Works), and Varney (Assistant Overseer, Public- "Works Department), Martin. Phillips, and G. W. Clout. ... The rescue is the fifth of the kind made by Mr Kershaw in two years. On all sides he was warmly congratulated on the way he handled the boat. Messrs Duthie. and Davis, after receiving necessary attention, were able to

proceed to their homes. Their experience will, no doubt, live long in the memory of each.