FARMER'S SURPRISE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 135, 5 December 1938, Page 6

FARMER'S SURPRISE

ONRUSH OF WATER

SOUTH CANTERBURY STORM

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) TIMARU, December 4. Exceptionally heavy rain fell throughout South Canterbury on Saturday afternoon and night, serious flooding occurring in many places. Farmers in the, Sutherlands district, near Cave, will incur heavy losses as the result of a cloudburst. Mr. T. B. Har^, a farmer in the district, was working in a tool shed near a creek bed which is usually dry when he heard a roaring sound. He rushed out to see a wall of water eight feet high pushing a mass of native trees and other debris down the gully. The flood remained at its peak for about an hour, but fortunately no buildings or homesteads were in the path of the waters. The greatest damage was done by the fringe of the cloudburst, which badly scoured many acres of worked land. Water undermined the railway to Fairlie and surfacemen worked till the early hours of the morning to get the j train through. It reached Fairlie five and a half hours x late. A downpour on the Pareora watershed caused extensive damage to the water-race leading to the reservoir from which Timaru draws its supply. Many slips occurred, and it will be a considerable time before an adequate reserve supply can be built up. The position of the borough supply is at present serious, and citizens have been urged to exercise great care.