ABNORMAL TIDE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4690, 26 April 1924, Page 2

ABNORMAL TIDE.

backed up by gale. FLOODS ON PLAINS. Backed up by a northerly gale the spring tide in the Firth of Thames on Wednesday morning was abnormally high. At many points on the coast from Waitakaruru to Orongo the sea came over the stop-banks and inundated the farm land. Miranda Road was covered to a depth of several feet, and is now strewn with driftwood, as also is the Pipiroa-Wai-takaruru road west of the canal. Water covered the road in Waitakaj uru township to a depth greater than eve known of before. Had it risen a uuarter of an .inch higher it would have entered the post office. hi the Piako River the water was highei than it has been for many years. It was over the wharf at Kopuarahi, and only two inches below ig the highest known flood level at Ngatea. Miles of the stop-bank proved too low. and at several places it was washed away.

Describing the deluge at Kopuarahi a settler living near the wharf said that the water rose like a tidal wave and came over the stop-bank for as far as he could see in one continuous wacerfall, inundating his farm in a very short time.

At Shelly Beach stock were quickly removed to higher land, but in depressions they had to swim. Shelly Bc’aeh Road on Wednesday resembled a canal.

Practically all the land on the eastern side of the Piako River up to Horahia was inundated for about hiUf a mile back from the river. Haystacks, fences, ami trees were all that could be seen on several farms. Stock was put to graze on the roadside. and had to be milked bn Wednesday evening in distant sheds. Towards afternoon the gale .abated and veered round to the noth-west, but at low tide the river was onlydown to neap tide level. The floodgates were doing their utmost to discharge the water, but proved totally inadeqaute for the task. The extent of the damage cannot be caWllated. but it. is expected that most of the pasture on the submerged land lias been destroyed by the salt water.