FLOOD IN THE GREY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1328, 31 October 1872, Page 2

FLOOD IN THE GREY.

Those who experienced the wildness of the weather in tho streets of Grey mouth during the small hours of Wednesday morning — principally policemen, press men, and telegraphists — anticipated that there would be a heavy fresh, if not a Serious flood, in the Grey before twentyfours had gone, and the anticipations were fully realised. The risks of a flood became more apparent at the time of tide and breakfast, when the river came tearing through the Gorge, big, brown, and bearing upon its surface branches of trees, trunks of the same, and prominently Montgomery's punt from Rock Island Ferry. The conditions favorable to a continuance of these features increased . as it blew and rained from the north-west without any signs of abatement, and early precautions were taken to moor strongly I the three vessels in port— the Sarah and fMary, Charles Edward, and Dispatch. Mooring piles of the best material are of little service under such circumstances, and when of the worst it would be moral and maritime weakness to tru3t to them. Therefore anchors were sunk in the middle of the street, and by those and intervening chains and warps of the strongest the vessels were moored, the steamers being boomed off to prevent the possibility of accident to their paddles as they grated alongside the wharf and rose above its level. On shore, and in the upper part of the town, the substantial stone breastwork — a work which followed the flood of February — was some guarantee that, except under circumstances more extraordinary than then took place, people and property were safe— safe, at least, from the danger and destruction of a running stream, and it proved to be the one great source of safety to the town. It was only a source of disaster to one citizen, Mr Barkley, who selected it as a stand-point to witness the spectacle of the flood, and who, by a misplacement of his own pedestals, stumbled into the raging stream — fortunately in proximity to a pile and in sight of a Samaritan who promptly and successfully went to his assistance. The one weak point of the river bank was immediately above the wharf, and nearly opposite Tainui street, where the soil began to be sluiced away, but the Surveyor and a gang of men were soon engaged in forming a breast-work of earth-filled bags, and the operation was continued till after night-fall and until the flood had subsided. Had a similar woik been carried out at the end of Boundary street— provided always that such bags were filled with shingle instead of stufl of the consistency of grave-yard mould — that street, probably, would not have suffered from any scour, aud the Surveyor and the members of the Corporation would have slept with more soundness and satisfaction than they did after their active day's work. Below Boundary street, and during the day, the new timber work — piles compactly placed together — formed an excellent breakwater and seemingly diverted the river from the course which it might otherwise have taken J_, -~»~i,. n A....nnrl ihmiiul- O«~U ...a D 1..1. more's brewery. As the tide rose in the

evening, and the waters were backed up, the brewery wa3the first place tosufferfrom the influx of water, and before eight o'clock Boundary street was the course of a considerable stream, which by ten o'clock had full possession of it in length and breadth. By this time the lower and back parts of the town were all more or less under water, but the water was still. By the intervention of tho stone breasts work there was no young Grey coursing down the Tidal Creek, as in February, and the chief inconvenience was that which was anciently and annually common — the stoppage of all locomotion except by horse or dray, or by an occasional boat. Forewarned by experience, the majority of householders on low levels had betaken themselves to better positions, or sat, like Patience, on such impromptu monuments as dining tables and four-posters. There were no accidents or "hair-breadth 'scapes" that we have heard of, and in the estimation of repre? sentative3 of young Greymouth, who are gradually acquiring duck-like proclivities for water, the flood as a whole was probably considered a failure.

As compared with the flood of February, that of yesterday was, so far as experienced in the upper part of the town, three feet less in height. Along Mawhera Quay it was simply flush with the crown of the causeway, and did not reach the house-fronts. Another foot in height it would have been inconvenient, perhaps injurious, in the business part of the town. It had palpably subsided before 11 p.m. ■

An advantage in connection with this flood which has not been experienced on former occasions was the existence of telegraphic communication with the Ahaura. 4* W earjy fyour yesterday we communicated with' our correspondent there, and his description of the state of matters there, at intervals during the day, will be found in another column. Other and similar telegrams were received, and they were useful as a source of infortion regarding what might be expected in Greymouth. From Westport 'we also received a telegram, which will relieve the fears felt as to the safety of that place, supposed to be— or so much of it as is left being supposed to bp — -ii^. danger from the heavy northrwest sea prevailing. Fortunately the Buller River had free scope through its two channels, and, as here, no damage had been done. With the other sea-coast township in Nelson Province— Cobden— there has been no communication, but, as seen from Mawhera Quay, it seemed to lose some of its fair proportions by some extensive slips from its picturesque but unprotected river-bank.