MANY HOMES ISOLATED

Chronicle (Levin), 8 March 1949, Page 5

MANY HOMES ISOLATED

(N.Z.P.A.

—Reuter,

Torrential Downpour Brings Floods In N.S.W.

Copyri&\t)

Received Tuesday, 10.40 a.m. SYDNEY, March 8. Efforts are being made to get food through by jeeps to station nomesteads isolated by torrenciai rains in the north-west corner of New South Wales. In three days this area, with an average rainfall of less than six '.nches annually, received falis of over ten inches. The area is grazing country with homesteads far apart. In messages received, settlers say Lhat the area is like an imand sea. Six hundred people on 60 stations are cut off from food supplies and .nedical help. The water is three feet deep in some homes and the rising flood threatens others. Today planes are parachuting food to the stations, one of which \vas down to its last bag of flour and was short of several essential foods. A plane which flew 1400 Ibs. of food to Tibooburra was isolated by :he floods after it .anded. The pilot reported that the road from Broken -iill to Tibooburra. was invi'sible for ,tretches of up to 20 milses. The officer in charge of the flying doctor radio station at Broken Hill reports that most of the northivest territory is a quagmire of Tiick red mud. In the area where the explorers Burke and Wil.s carved their last message on a'tree ■>efore dying of thirst and exposure, the water is 17 feet above norma!.