STREETS FLOODED

Wairarapa Daily Times, 17 February 1938, Page 7

STREETS FLOODED

CLOUD BURST AT MATATA.

AUCKLAND, Wednesday.

Boulders, trees and debris were swept down a hillside, small streams were' swollen beyond carrying capacity, streets were inundated, road and rail traffic was seriously dislocated and at least two houses were threatened by flood waters following a cloud burst at Matata to-day. Lying at the foot of a strip of hilly country on the Bay of Plenty coast the township suffered severely.

Although the actual structural damage resulting from several hours of torrential rain is reported to be slight, in the middle of the afternoon thetownship was practically surrounded by deep lagoons and swift-flowing torrents of water.

Creeks rose with amazing rapidity and the main street was very soon a turbulent river, charged with boulders and debris. The township was robbed of its water supply when a dam which was situated in a gully in the hills burst under the weight of an enormous volume of flood water. Numerous slips on the main Taneatua Road suspended motor traffic between Te Puke and Matata and a fairly serious slip and subsidence on the railway line held up the railway service this afternoon, following torrential rain.—(P.A.) (Matata is 219 miles south-east by. rail from Auckland).