FLOOD HAZARD

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 9, 11 March 1938, Page 4

FLOOD HAZARD

NO. 4 CAMP LOCATION - , _____ "... t '*{ •• • KOPUAWHAHA FRESHES ■ - \ .. TOTARAS 100 -YE|ARS 'OLD 3 Discussions of the nature of the recent Hood in the Ro- ■* puawhara Creek, which led to the loss of 21 lives jn the greatest, fniblie works disaster ever recorded in New Zealand, have revealed that the sito of No. 4 Camp, which received the full blast of the flood, had never been seriously threatened during the period of railway activity ill tiie valley, from 1930 to 1938. The camp site was established when the first railway 1 survey .was made through the valley, and was actuahy determined upon by members of if gang engaged with the assistant engineer in charge of the survey, -a pressman learned during a visit to the Kopuawhafa Valley, says the P.B. Herald.

Once or twice, in the course of heavy freshes in the creek during the/ occupancy of the camp, the water level had risen until it seemedi possible that the huts would have to- he evacuated for an hour or two, but the danger had never been acute at any time. j This was one of the reasons why some of the occupants of the camp proved hard to rouse to the danger of t-lie flood. A number were slow in responding to- the given by those, who had been out in the night, and who. had a r-Sal appreciation of the peril in which the camp stood. More than one came grumbling into the open, believing that lie had been disturbed unnecessarily for a trickle of water over the surface of the ground. The passage of a few second's, of course, removed any misapprehension as to the stark reality of the peril.

“The creek has not been over ti.e camp site for 100 years at least,” declared one of the workers who discussed the matter with a press representative. “There were totara trees growing there with a girth of 12in. and more,* and totaras are not fast in growth. Had they been overflowed at any time, to a serious extent, it is unlikely that they would have survived.”