Wellington Flooded.

Manawatu Herald, 14 March 1893, Page 2

Wellington Flooded.

Last Friday Wellington wag visited by a hurricane which raged from 9. p.m. on Friday to noon on Saturday. Lambton wa^'d suffered from water; the land on the new reclamation, on which Boss & Glendinning's warehouse is erected was a sea of water.Saunders' Lane, between Tinakorf and Grant roads was flooded owing to the culvert under the Manawatu Railway Company's reclamation getting blocked, the water rising from 2 feet to 8 leet, and until a new outlet is dug the spot will remain a lake. Around the Government and Company's stations water laid from •1 to 4 feet deep. Other -portions of the town sntfeveil from culverts bursting. iSlips occurred on the Manawatu line near No. 2 tunnel, close to the viaduct, aud several between Tawa Flat and Porirua. The line is, however, now cleared for traffic. Several slips took place on the Eimutaka incline, and the sea wall I between Wellington and the Butt has been damaged. The Hutt has witnessed the largest flood ever kuown and water stretched from hill to hill. Though considerable inconvenience has been occasioned and some loss, still it is fortunate to be able to record no large numbers of stock being drowned. Petone was very much flooded, water being in some of the streets 8 feet to 4 feet deep. Captain Edwin describes the storm as follows : — This was a tropical hurricane or 'rotary storm, 'travelling from the north-west. So far as I can judge it seems to. have passed between New Caledonia and the > coast of Queensland in a southwesterly direction, and then at a point lying in mid-ocean about SO south and 165 east it evidently curved to the south-east, its centre, which would not.be more than from 20 to 30 miles across, striking the western, coast of the North Island at Raglan and travelling across the Island to Napier. Its entire circumference, however, embraced the whole of the western coast of New Zealand from Hokitika (whence it travelled across the South Island to Kaikoura on the East Coast) right up to the North Cape. Its diameter would therefore be about 700 miles. The country to the south of a line drawn from Hokitika to Kaikoura enjoyed fine weather throughout, but the rest of the Colony was involved in the hurricane. By the morning of the 9th the centre of the hurricane had reached to about 250 miles westward of Raglan, In Wellington at that time we had moderate northerly winds with a falling barometer and appearances of rain. On Friday, the 10th, the centre of the hurricane had reached Raglan, and was working its way across that portion of the North Island, and it was there raging at its very height before 9 o'clock on Friday night, when the gale began to break in full force upon Wellington. Between Friday and Saturday mornings it had crossed the centre of the North Island, and the barometer at places along its route had 'risen generally by 9 o'clock on Saturday; the worst being over; But Wellington only experienced the height of its share of the hurricane between 9 o'clock on Friday night and noon on Saturday. The lowest pressure in the centre of the storm was about 29.20. This is not a very unusual reading. In 1889 the glass was down as low as 28.50.