FLOOD HITS MAKERUA SOLIDLY

Chronicle (Levin), 23 August 1946, Page 3

FLOOD HITS MAKERUA SOLIDLY

Many Farms Deep Under Water llow disaster ean deseend on to the lower lying farm iands in the lowei Alanawatu areus, was again Jt'orcibb denionstrated at Makerua on Wednesday and yesterday. The farmers tlieiu are at the meroy of tlie Manawaru aua Tokomaru ltivers wliieh, in times oi iloods, are lieid baek by high stopbanks. lf these hoid, theu all is weil aud good and probably no better farming lanu exists. iiut'it is a diil'erent picture L the stopbanks are breaclied. And thn was what liappened ou Wednesdav morning. The Tokomaru Kiver lorced the bank on the west sido, between Makerua and Shannon and poured through with a terriiie volume. Some thousands oi aeres were quiekly inundated ana farmers raeed to remove their stoek to sal'er piaees. Yesterday dairy eo\\>, beef ealtle, sheep and pigs lined tlu roads and higher land. Most of tlie sheep were with lamb, some not inore than a few days old. They were al. bedraggled, wet and dirty. Lambs lay dead on the side of tlie road. Main mure yet will sueeumb as a result oi the wet and eold. There is no feed toi these • animals ou the roadside, the latter also being under water right up to the metal and in some piaees it is running ucruss tlie road. The eoWs weie more fortunale. in piaees they wero iibie> to wade through the liood to haystaeks wliieh stood out like islands in the tlood. There were many unusuai seenes. On one farm pigs had elimbed up on to a eut in a staek. There wero so many of them that one miglit very easiJy pusli another into the water froui ofi' the staek. Cowbails were feet deep in water and farmers so placed were faeed with a milking i>roblem not easily solved. It all was a terrible mixup. lOwes and lambs were parted, whirh in ea n t that the lambs were withoiit nourisliment until they fouml eae.h other and that was another pr.oblem 1101 easily solved as ofteu big stretehes of water lay between them. One farmer had to reseue his lambs in n trailer drawn by a tnietor, the depth oi the ilood nearlv beating hirn. The stock losses at the momeut are not iieavy but the deaths to follow later as the result of exposure will be high. Jlomesteads were lsoiated by the llood whieh had entered some of the houses. The flood water in this area must be puni'ped out, -owingtto the- land being lower than the river level and it will take days to do that. Yesterday at middav the water was still tiowing the wrong way. The settlers affeeted worst were Messrs. Lowery Bros., J. S. Patersou, R. 0. Anderson, Grahain-.Suiith, M. II. tSeanlan and H. Bouthce.

Latest information about the big break in the Tokomaru stopbanks, reveals that water stopped ruimiug i through yesterday afternoon so that ■ from Tlu-n 011 tlie pumps sliould com- . tnence lowering the water spread out over the farmlands. ' It is expJuined that it was not Toko- ! maru stream water whieh cansed the ! break but water whieh bucked up the ; Tokomaru River from the Manawatu ! River in high flood. Tlie peak at tlie | Shannon bridge near wliere the Toko- ! maru joins the ^Manawatu River, was i "Oft. and as long after as 12 hours, the j heiglit at the Shannon bridge was 22 feet, revealing a slow fall.