BULK STORE IN CITY FLOODED BY HEAVY RAIN

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 12

BULK STORE IN CITY FLOODED BY HEAVY RAIN

- When drains at the corner of Kilmore street and Fitzgerald avenue became clogged with leaves and flooded late yesterday afternoon. water poured across the footpath into McKenzie’s, Ltd.’s, bulk store in the former Ward’s brewery.

Within 20 minutes, the floors of three rooms, each

as large as two tennis courts were covered with six inches of water. The rooms held stocks of fabrics, china, glassware and hardware. Firemen laid hoses across the yard, and began to pump 520 gallons of water a minute into clear drains in Chester street. Six firemen swept water and operated pumps. They also built a low dam between two rooms, but the water leaked through. At 8.15 p.m. more firemen arrived, and by 9 p.m. they

were sweeping the last of the water towards the pump. Silt covered parts of the floor, and many cardboard cartons, the bottoms sodden, appeared likely to collapse. No Estimate The manager of McKenzie’s, Ltd.'s. Colombo street store (Mr E. G. Truscott) could not estimate the damage, but said that many of the cases held from £3OO to £5OO worth of stock This appeared to be the

worst damage caused by the fall of more than an inch of rain in Christchurch yesterday. Heavy rain set in about 3 p.m. and continued through the evening. Fallen leaves blocked stormwater drains, and caused gutters to overflow

in most parts of the city. In some places surface

wa’er was deep, and the police had a telephone call to tell them that in one place water was up to the seat of a motor-cycle parked in a gutter. The chief engineer, operations, of the Drainage Board (Mr H. F. Page) said last evening that there had only been one report of flooding—at the bulk store in Fitzgerald avenue—but he thought there would be more reports of flooding today if the rain continued.

Fall Genera! The rain, which was general throughout Canterbury, was not welcomed by farmers. In most districts the rainfall from noon to 8 p.m. was about three-quarters of an inch, not sufficient to cause much concern to farmers unless it continued for another day. In the Rangiora and Loburn areas farmers considered the rain would do

more harm than good, and Loburn farmers said that if the rain continued today most farmers would have to redrill their cultivated land. Omihi, where creeks are dry and scarcely any rain had fallen this year, welcomed the rain. In Mid-Canterbury the rain was steady for most of the afternoon, and if it continues for another day could hold up the sowing of wheat as the soil would become too heavy. For potato growers the rain was welcome. Most farmers are digging their main crop, and difficulty has been experienced in the last two weeks because of the dry soil not clinging to the potatoes as they pass through the grading machine, thus causing bruising. At Cheviot and Scargill, where there had been heavy rain in the last two weeks, the rain was only light for most of the afternoon. In Blenheim and Kaikoura there was little rain in the afternoon, but it was becoming heavier last evening.