A SOLID WALL OF RAIN.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 495, 30 April 1909, Page 5

A SOLID WALL OF RAIN.

•'!■.•'■'■'.. "•.'■ - " »"';..''.■ '".-.a-.. ' 'EXTRAORDINARY 1 SCENE, v . Remarkable' weatherphenomena are described in a report from Afr. H. B. Davereux, of AVaihi, quoted by the Rev. D. C. Bates in his meteorological : summary for 'March. , Says ..Mr. Devereux,'referring to' March 29.:—"After noon - the river rose/at,a: phonomendlrate, and -soon i all former Hood-levels were passed, and had the rain'not eased off the damage;.'would have ■been serious..-As it was, a.large area'of:cbun.'try- was-inundated, and ; several buildings on tho flat; we're" almost submerged.'..' At 1 plm. there-was ah electrical.:discharge in the east , which was -undoubtedly' of the. nature: of a thunderbolt, and whichV/'was'-; evidently associated with.a great atmospheric upheaval. I was so confident of this that on Monday of this week I rode out to the coast, and,found in a valley, undoubted evidence, of a cloudbnrst. An extraordinary -sceno, of destruction whs viewed; For a radius of a mile innumerable landslips were to be seen, but the most noticeablo feature wns tho long ' distances which boulders, soil, and trees had been transported. Tho stream-bed was almost unrecognisable/and had carried large boulders and debris right down-to the sandhills, through which it had out a fresh outlet. Everywhere was evidence of on exceptional rainfall. A resident in.the yallev states-'.tlrft the whole thing •occurred within' twenty. minutes, and - that. tho water came down in a solid wall. Luckily the windforco at the time was never below that a of moderate: breeze. Residents further down tho coast report abnormal falls and damage."