A FLOODED HIGHWAY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5039, 13 October 1926, Page 2

A FLOODED HIGHWAY.

PLAINS MOTORISTS’ EXPERIENCE. NIGHT ON CAR TOP. To have to spend the night perched on the top of a limousine in the rain and with flood-water rising rapidly was the experience of a party of Plains motorists who s.et out for Auckland last Saturday evening.

This happened near Mangatawhiri, in the Pokeno Valley, through attempting to cross a flooded section of the main highway and being washed off the road by a strong current. Bejond the discomfort |Bnd. delay the l asSengers were not hurt, but the limousine was considerably damaged. It was quickly submerged to a depth of ajmost five feet, and as water was drawn into the engine before it stopped the heads of four cylinders and one piston were forced put and the electrical equipment practically ruined. This section of road is frequently flooded, and many cars come to grief and have to be towed out. The Auckland .Automobile Association has had depth posts-erected, but as they have been knocked about by cattle they are not reliable. Over a dozen cars had to be towed across last Sunday. Near the road there is. a creek with six or eight feet high. In weather such as that of the last two week-ends it becomes a raging hill torrent and overflows the stop-banks and inunda.tes the surrounding country. The flooding is usually of short duration, and unless, there is a big breach in the stop-bank there is not much current to scour out the road. For a long time the matter of diverting the creek to a safer route has been under consideration, but as Franklin Cohnty, the Main Highways Boa-rd, and also the Public Works Department as builders of the railway, are interested, delays have been caused.