SUDDEN FLOOD IN MELBOURNE.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 626, 22 January 1870, Page 4

SUDDEN FLOOD IN MELBOURNE.

♦ [age.] A violent thunderstorm passed over the city at five o'clock on. Monday afternoon, the 3rd instant, accompanied by a heavy fall of vain, with which Elizabeth street was flooded very quickly, In about twenty minutes after the storm commenced, the water rose to a height which lias not been reached for the last year or two, the footpath oil the east aide, between Collins street and Little Oollins street, being covered to the depth of about eighteen inches. The shopkeepers, forewarned by former visitations of the kind, smartly put up their door" panels when the waters began to rise, and some of them set fco work busily in stopping np interstices with tow, by wliich the flood was dyked out safely. .Numbers of rats were flooded out of the side drains and drowned ; some of the bridges over the gutters were washed away ; in numerous places the mad metal was washed np, and blocked the watercourses, and where A'Beckett intersects Elizabeth street, the footpath for some distance \Vas covered with about six inches of tine road metal. ,A. complete stoppage to the foot traffic occurred ft >r sometime, during wliich the cabs were busily engaged in removingtheflooded out pedestrians. Once or twice a foolluirdy person attempted to cross the rushing torrent, and one man was saved from more than a ducking by a coustable dragging him on to the pavement as he was being carried away. Two lads had a .narrow escape from' being drowned through attempting to cross. Elizabeth street near Lonsdale street. ! They' had tucked up tlieir trousers and in gteat glee entered tlie water, But; the force ' of the stream at once took them oft" their feet, and but for the praiseworthy ' cxer : tions of t'irce or four individuals /who witnessed the young tirchins' daring, they uiight have lost their lives •' In Swanston street a horse vii>& forged by the waters rgainst a ' cab. T.he horse broke one of its legs, and had to be killed. Another horse was drowned. In i\\ti lovvor portions of Qctllingwopd and Richmond considerable damage waj3 done by the water, and several narrow escapes from serious accidents, took place, A most noticeable feature before the storm broke was the extreme lowiiess "of the clouds ; in East Melbourne the chimney staojus of a, whole row of fcwo-storey

houses were completely enveloped and hidden as the clouds passed along. The rain after ceasing for abou 1 ' a couple of hours commenced again, and through the night it fell heavily. Considerable damage has been done to the streets, the roads being washed bare and the gutters filled lip with a dark sand froni the macadmised atone, This ia particularly noticeable in the outskirts of the town, The swamps between Em§ra]d JiiU and Sandridge, and at the St Kilda Park and the beach side of the St, Kilda railway were flooded as in the winter, S\ich a sudden and enormous fall of rain has not occurred in the colony for many a long day. From our telegrams if. will be perceived that the storm has been general.