Position Grows Worse To-day.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20298, 7 May 1934, Page 7

Position Grows Worse To-day.

LARGE AREAS FLOODED. With the I-leathcote River rising slowly, the position of residents living close to its banks is liable to become serious if there is not an improvement in weather conditions. Large stretches of Western Terrace are already covered by a sheet of water, while low-lying paddocks are lake® from which trees and shrubs rise like a picture of a Florida swamp. As yet, only in a few places are houses cut off by the floods, but the river is running from bank to bank and it needs only a small rise to make it flow over the road all the wav from Colombo Street to Ferry Road If it does it will cause little more than inconvenience, as most of the houses are built on rising ground well above the level of the road, though some residents in the lower areas are in danger of being flooded out. Footbridges Covered. From Bird wood Avenue, where the footbridge is covered by the flow of water, the river has overflowed its banks and Western Terrace round the bend half-way to Corson Avenue is under nearly a foot of water. In one place a small footbridge has been swept from its moorings on the western side of the river and swings from the other secured end in the middle of the flooded river. Further round, high banks protect the western side and the houses there, but on the eastern side the river sweeps through gardens and fields of lucerne, blocking what road exists there. From Beckfo: J Road where the river takes a wide sweep through farm land before it meets populated areas half a mile from Ferry Road there is another bad area of flooding, but here again it is fields that are mainly affected. At this stage the river is about a chain wide and it runs within a foot of the bank. Footbridges are practically level with the water and the Opawa bridge rises only two feet above the flood. The river had fallen somewhat during the night, but at about nine o'clock it had risen again about six inches, and the rising of the tide and further rainfall were having an effect. Roads in Bad State. The flooding of the Ileatlicote in some places caused it to flow above the level of the outlets of the storm-water drains, and the water was forced back. This led to flooding in nearby streets, though this did not reach serious proportions. Streets everywhere are showing the effects of the heavy rainfall and the flooding. Potholes are numerous. Colombo Street, from where the concrete gives place to asphalt at the Sydenh Post OfFce to the foot of Dyer’s Ppss Road, is a mass of potholes and ac - ' ' ’ - * blc.