HEAVY FLOODS AT NELSON.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 453, 11 February 1867, Page 3

HEAVY FLOODS AT NELSON.

[Nelson Examiner, 29th January.) Between four o’clock on Sunday evening, when the rain began, and nine o’clock yesterday morning, when the storm may be said to have spent itself. the heaviest fall of rain tool: place that we have witnessed in Nelson for several years, andwc are not sure that we ever saw before such a heavy rain continue the same number of hours. The weather had been showery for several preceding days, but no great amount of rain had fallen, and the flood we experienced yesterday morning was therefore the effect of that which had fallen during the few preceding hours. The rivers that flowthrough the town, though heavily flooded, were not so full as we have seen them previously, particularly after the heavy rain which fell about this time last year. The damage done however has been considerable, although bearing, we hope, no pro portion to that caused by the flood early in last February. The effect of the rain on the present occasion was chiefly exhibited early yesterday morning in the flooded state of the lower part of the town, and in the numerous slips on the sides of the hills surrounding the town. So great was the rush of water from the hills which drain into the tidc\vay above the Saltwater-bridge, that the water rose above the causeway leading from the Post-office to a height that enabled a boat to sail up the road to the Post-office steps. From this mav be judged the flooded state of the.Waimea-strect,'Wasliington Valley, and the backs of the houses on tire south side of Bridge-street. In several other parts of the town, where the culverts were not sufficiently large to carry off so great a houy of water, the streets were overflown to the depth, in many instances, of from six. to eighteen inches. Muny collars were filled with water, to the damage of the propertycontained in them. The greatest damage suffered by public property- is at the roadway in Brook-st., and the new bridge in Nile-strcet. The roadw.iv in question has been newly made since last year, when the whole was washed away by the flood in February, and tins work has now- sustained damage, the extent of which w*e have not had time to ascertain. Both approaches to the Nile-st. bridge are seriously damoged. When this bridge was erected a few months ago, the hanks of the river, both above and below, were formed by piles being driven some depth into the ground, and a casing of stout planking nailed inside the piles, behind which the road was made up with gravel to a height of about five feet. The flood of yesterday- has washed away a good deal of this gravel, so that the bridge can now only be reached by a plank. There seems to have been a doable, fault committed in constructing this work. The planks should have been nailed on the river side of the piles, which, would have given a smooth surface, and the water would have bowed past without, encountering the impediment which the piles afford. Then also the back of the casing should have been puddled, if it was intended the water should not wash through the casing to the grav el, w-hich was hound to he carried awav if reached by the current. The chief damage the ram has inflicted on private individuals is through t.ie loosening of the soil on the lull sides, which led to several land-slips. Some houses on the Beach road, and in Brook-st., have been damaged by these slips, and some gardens have been nearly destrojod. The Suburban North road has, we are told, been rendered impassable for carriages. From the country we were unable last evening to get satisfactory intelligence, but there were reports in town that some bridges on the main road had been carried away. • We fear it will be found that the corn lying on the ground, as well as some of the standing crops which were ripe, have, been more or mss injured. We learn from the Meteorological Bepstrar, that the amount of rain which fell in o.iji° n ycstcrday . was ike enormous quantity of 9 inches. This is not only the greatest quantity ot ram that has ever fallen in Nelson in a single day, since a register has been kept, but it is an excessive quantity for any place in the latitude of New ocaland. The barometer stood at 30-150.