SETTLERS CUT OFF

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20106, 28 November 1939, Page 6

SETTLERS CUT OFF

i COAST CLOUDBURST

MARAEHARA VALLEY SUDDEN RISE OF RIVER RAIN HELPS PASTURES (■Special to the Herald.) TIKITIKI, this day. A cloudburst was experienced in the Maraehara Valley last Friday afternoon, and the river rose suddenly in heavy flood.

Road communication was severed, and settlers who were away from their homes were unable to return, until the following day.

Light showers fell in the northern port of the Coast on Thursday, some very heavy showers occurring on Friday over a wide area. Warm showers continued over the week-end, and pastures and gardens beneiited considerably, the growth of grass at present being greater than at anytime during the spring.

The weather of the past week-end was a direct contrast to the conditions prevailing during the past month, when cold and dry winds retarded growth, particularly in the high country behind Te Araroa, where there was a shortage of feed until this week.

The week-end rain at Wairoro station, Tikitiki, up to 9 a.m. was 1.37 in

The Gisborne rainfall for the four days on which rain had fallen up to <1 a.m. to-day was 1.64 in., bringing the total for the month to 3.02 m. This is'only the third month this year that the rainfall has exceeded the average, which for November is 2.88 in. The other occasions this year on which the monthly averages were exceeded were April and September. The average fall for the first 11 months of the year is 42.46 in., and for the year to date, with three days’ figures to be included in the present month, the total is only 27.86 in.