DELUGE IN WELLINGTON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 306, 28 December 1939, Page 6

DELUGE IN WELLINGTON

CONTINUOUS- DOWNPOUR SEVERAL SLIPS OCCUR FOUNDATIONS OF HOUSE DAMAGED [ I'er Press Ae-sociatlon. J WELLINGTON, Dec. 27. Rain which began in showers yesterday afternoon developed into a continuous .downpour which continued throughout the night and is still coming down heavily. A length of three chains of Suther- j land Road and a shorter length of ; Carlton Road still higher on the hillside broke away, storm water and drainage services and carrying off the foundations of the house of Mr. C. R. Dunce. Queen’s Drive. A huge amount of sloppy silt w epc down and across Queen’s Drive Hooding four houses there and a dozen more houses in Toru Street. Mr. Dunce's house will have to be demolished. Rongotai aerodrome is flooded and is reported to be unworkable. All lowlying areas about the city are similarly affected by surface water. Conditions at the motor camp at Miramar are uncomfortable. No serious , Hooding is vet reported from the Hutt | Valley. Rain recorded at Kelburn observatory up to 9 a m. was 4.48 inches. The rain cased off at 11 a.m. but about another half inch had fallen up to noon. Residents at the back end of Karori are again sufferers from flooding. Already many slips have occurred about hill roads and properties. This December is now the wettest Wellington has known. Rainfall as recorded at Kelburn is 13 inches, five times the normal amount for the month. With the flood of a couple of weeks ago hardly drained away, the present one is likely to linger. Kelburns 4.48 inches is not the heaviest fall. Last night the Beacon Hill gauge recorded 6.15 inches. Serious Slip. A serious slip occurred when many thousands • of yards of sandy hillside overlooking Lyall Bay started break away at 6 a.m. This was the scene of a serious slip 15 months ago and the repair work has failed completely. The motor camp with 150 cars at Scots' College is very badly flooded, about a third of the parties being surrounded. The Exhibition grounds are not flooded. The rain does not appear to have been heavy in the hills. The Hutt practically unaffected. The whole of Petone and Lower Hutt areas, however, are carrying a large amount of surface, water. Happy Valley Road is completely blocked. The Parade at Isiand Bay is flooded over about a third of a mile and a number of houses have waler over the floors. A new outfall drain burst and trams were unable to reach the terminus. There were several large slips on the surrounding hillsides, including one against a house. Plunket Shield players went to the ground at 11 o'clock hut it was only to collect gear and Wellington won on the first innings. The Auckland team left on the 3 o’clock train. Heavy rain made continuation of the Canterbury-Otago Plunket Shield match in Christchurch impossible. Canterbury won on the first innings. TWO HOUSES WRECKED BY SLIPS MANY ROADS BLOCKED [ Per P:e»s A=M><.iaUGß I WELLINGTON, Dec. 27. Within a fortnight of the disastrous Hutt Valley floods. Wellington experienced another torrential downpour to-day. From 4 p.m. yesterday, u hen rain began, till 8.30 o'clock tonight. 5.25 inches of rain fell, making the total for December 15.23 inches, the greatest amount of rain ever recorded in Wellington in one month. Two houses, one at Lyall Bay. and one in Karori, were wrecked by slips, which also blocked many roads. Campers were flooded out and water lying on the Rongotai Aerodrome prevented the arrival or departure of airliners. This time no flooding occurred in the Hutt Valley, and even at the height of the fall the level of the Hutt River was comparatively low. The reason for this was that the rain came from the south and the Hutt River is seldom affected except by heavy rain from the hills during easterly and northerly winds. The amount of rain which fell during the storm wa> not quite as much as that which fell during the storm of two weeks ago. but nevertheless .*■ was nearly as much as the average Tor the month in Wellington. Tbn most ever recorded previously m December a> l-.tS inches, in 1884. and the most in any month. 12.94 inches, in October. 1904. It was still raining late to-nfght and It appeared that the total for the month to dat* 15.23 inches, might op further increased considerably before the end of the month. Undermined when the flood-waters -paused hundreds of tons of earth to Sip from the steep hillside below Carlton Road. Lyall Bay. to-day. the house of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Dunce. Qieen’s Drive, toppled over and was completely wrecked. Many other properties in Queen's- Drive and Toru Street were covered with silt, in some nlaces to a depth of several feet, and * >he roadway at the junction of the tao streets was blocked. The hillside where the slip occurred is formed of randy soil, which offered little resistance to the water. About fifteen months ago a bad slip occurred there, starting above Carlton Road and blocking Sutherland Road. Repair work was carried out by the City Council, but it failed completely today. The slip has destroyed the drainage. water, gas and electric-power services, and a number of residences will be inconvenienced till repairs can be made. The telephone wires also came down. , Thrust off its foundations by a moving clay bank, a five-roomed wooden house at 37 Nottingham Street, Karori, was moved seven feet forward and wrecked I his morning. The house was shifted about a foot forward by a slip of clay during the heavy rain

a fortnight ago and it has not been occupied since. The previous slip crushed in the washhouse at the back, threw the dwelling out of plumb and cracked a chimney. The house was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. R. T. Norton and their daughter, aged 13, but w hen the damage occurred two weeks ago they left the house and have since lived with their next-door neighbours,