FLOOD DAMAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 30 March 1920, Page 3

FLOOD DAMAGE

(Per Press Association.)

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

AUCKLAND, March 29

Full details are not yet available ’-e ' ' garding tlie North Auckland floods an ■;it is still impossible to estimate tin damage. The< “Herald’s” Paparoa cor ; i respondent, telegraphing to-night, say; widespread damage was done to Ota matea County roads and bridges, Heavy loss lias been suffered by farm crs, who have had their fences carried away by slips and their stock killed. At t Wiapti Gorge all the original wooden bridges, numbering twenty or twenty- • live, were carried away, only a large j concrete bridge remaining? . Conflicting accounts have come to ; and regarding a motor accident in the , Gorge. It is now stated a party was overtaken "by the flood and moored the car to a tree and were rescued from the top of the car. I A special meeting of the Otamatea Council will he held to-morrow to consider urgent works to afford temporary access to isolated settlers. Vehicular traffic cannot get through to the back districts and this renders the carting of food supplies at present impossible. Government aid is urgently necessary OVER EIGHTEEN INCHES IN ' THREE DAYS. GISBORNE, March 12. A later message from Ruatorea (Waiapu county) states 18{- inches of rain has fallen in three days up to 9 o’clock this mornng. It was the heaviest downfall since February 1917. There Is an enormous flood in the rivers. The iginfall at Gisborne was two inches in three da vs. GISBORNE, March 29. Phenomenally heavy rains are reported in Waiapu district. At Puketiti and Waipapiro seventeen inches and at Ahikouka between 5 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday nine inches fell. The rivers are in heavy flood .