AT SEDDONVILLE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 August 1929, Page 7

AT SEDDONVILLE

A RESIDENT’,9 LETTER, THE ’QUAKE DAMAGE. i AND ELOOD AFTERMATH. Just a few lines to let you know 'that I am still in the land of the living although to tell you the honest truth I thought our last day had come when we had the big shake. T was in the engine at the time, at 'the cqal bin, just outside the engine ■shed here, preparing the engine to : run a special train to Gvanity. We .have not run that special yet. The engine rocked from side to side and ]then it moved back and then started to run into the engine shed. I had great difficulty in getting it out clear of the shed.. Once I did so I jumped off quick and lively and then I could hardly stand up the ground was shaking that much.. -It was an awful experience while it lasted and I don’t want another. Gazing around the village you could see chimneys falling everywhere and people rushing out of their houses screaming. If this had happened at night time there would have been a lot of people killed.

I was talking to a man here by the name of Harrison. He was up the Matakitaki, up Murchison way, the day of the big shake. He was deer stalking and had a good look n,round at the done by the shake and he reckons what happened up there is not a flea-bite to what happened up the Mokihinui River, At the back of Seddonville. He is a blacksmith here and was one of the party who went out to cut a. track up the rivier here to carry explosives up to blast the dam away. There is ptill fear of another flood here. The Iriver is -still blocked about. 15 miles krp dnd is a dam. for 5 or 6 miles ■Jiack. This man says he lias been up 'this river about a hundred times and When he went up after the earthquake be could not find his -bearings, the 'pountry had changed that' much. He said where there were hills there were ,no hills at all after the shake.--,. He ,got the surprisfe, of his life. ■' This little village is surrounded by jiills and everywhere you look you see huge land slides. Some of the Sides that were heavily timbered are quite bare now. Seddonville looks a queer place now, more so after the flood. The railway line was in a bad state with the shake. I was very lucky that I was home. The line was twisted into all sorts of shapes. In one place the line dropped about five feet. • In other places the rails were twisted like snakes and bolts were snapped off. like carrots at the joints. For a couple of weeks after that all railway hands were out fixing up the track from here into Westport. It will be months before they have the ordinary time-table resumed. k What made matters, worse here was the flood.

The line was washed clean of ballast and practically all packed up with sleepers around Seddonville. In one place in particular the ballast was gouged about fivtoi feet deep. We are running one special a day to Granity, leaving here at 8.30 a.m., and get back about one o’clock, with a speed restriction of six miles an hour. The Department paid more attention to the line from. Granity to Westport so that they could get the coal away from the mines. The coal trains are about hack to normal how from Granity in, hut they have not started passenger services yet. There were quite a number of houses shaken off their piles. One house was lifted by the flood and came to rest right across the road. The nublic hall, quite a big .buildin", was lifted by the water and carried for about a hundred yards and came to rest at the hack door of the grocery rhop. Over at Corby’s place a double chimney came right through the roof run to the floor, and the kitchen chimney also toppled over; also a 1300 r-allon concrlete tank. They are heavy losers with the earthquake lot alone the flood.

There was only one ohimney in the district that was not affected and Ihat was in a new housle. A bricklayer arrived from . Christchurch and lias signed up to build sixty chimnevs in Seddonville. I suppose I could write for a week and then not run out of news about the earthquake damage here.

Everyone here had the v ind-up fbout the river being blocked and ihe likelihood of a flood but nobody l ad any idea it would rise to the lieight it did. It was seven feet in our house and up to the ceiling in n few others. It was 9ft 6in in the engine shed. The few people that were living on high land were very fortunate. I am stopping with some friends who are living on fairly high ground, but got About six inches of water in their house.. The other l ouses that fared worse are in no way habitable yet. The people started to clean up their homes hut when 1 hey got word of another dam up the river, work practically ceased. They ere mainly shifting what they have 1,..ft on to higher ground. The party blasting the dam started to blow it r way last Monday. This is Friday, pflth July, and they have succeeded in lowering the depth of water in the dam, eighteen inches, and tliero is a depth of about 40 feet left.

Everybody in the village is warned about sleeping on low ground. I don’t care to say how we would have fared had the last flood came at three in the morning instead of three in the afternoon. The flood was at its height about 5.30 a.m. and at one o’clock in the morning we were walking through Seddonvillei over ’ our boot tops in silt and mud. In the houses it was just the same, heartbreaking to say the least. We made straight for home, and what a sight, practically everything ruined, sqme things washed away in the current out to sea and a lot of other things may as well have been washed away too for all the good they will he. Over at Coifby’s farm, down near the river, they saw the river rising and managed to swim their stock out to high ground. They had 40 head of cattle and 4 horses, but they had all their pigs (about 20) washed away.

A tremendous amount of timber came down the river, logs 4 and 5 feet in diameter are to he seen lying alongside Corby’s house and concrete cowshed. Sand, ancl silt is all over the farm. Some , paddocks l fared worse than others; some of them are covered in npthing hut sand where grass Will never come through. In some places it is 2 or 3 feet deep. Some of the farmers in Westport have taken all their cows and are going to feed them" for the winter, but I think they will have to keep them off the farm for about twelve months the state it is in. They have 100 acres and nearly every fence is down and some washed away. They had about 8 feet of water in' the house, and are just about ruined. They were hit very hard indeed. In every house you go into here, from the high water mark on every wall, is a layer of mud, and every place will have to be re-sorimmed and papered. It is awful to look at. Every house will have to be scrubbed by hand as there is no water service where you could use water pressure. We were down at Granity with the train when I got word about the flood and did not get home till 0 o’clock, and then we had to leave Ihe train in a siting two miles away And make- ‘at bolt for it to , get right jipi here as soph'as'we. could." . The .flood was just about at its height wffen we got on' to a. hill overlooking ‘leddonville.' As' luck happened everybody was safe.; ‘ A. lot of us are minus a lot of ouV clothes, what with washed ■ away by' the water and damaged beyond repair, but I suppose we will get over it’ in time. A lot of people went away over to Christchurch as refugees but; they will have a nice jpess to clean qp when they get home. Wie ones ' flint stopped at home and washed their ’clothes, etc., will be Ivetter off in' tjie ' long run. Don’t he surprised 'if you of another flood. It should not be as bad as Ihe last one if : they- go about blasting the dam in the right way. All eyes of course are on the river just now in case she rises. The ’quakes are gradually dying off.