A MIDSUMMER FLOOD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 297, 14 December 1914, Page 4

A MIDSUMMER FLOOD.

CREYMOUTH’S EXPERIENCES ON

SUNDAY NIGHT.

DAMAGE TO RAILWAYS. business men and settlers LOSE HEAVILY. Per Press Association. Greytnouth, December 14. Grevmouth had a rare midsummer experience last night, when one of the heaviest floods on record deluged the town. The river on Sunday morning was a little more than normal, several steamers having departed and entered on the morning tide, but during the day the volume of water gradually rose, until six o’clock, when the lirebells gave the alarm. The river was then a raging torrent, running hank high. At 7.30 it began to trickle over the lower end of the wharf, until at nine o’clock the whole wharf was awash and the town was flooded to a depth of six feet in Mawhera Quay.

Such a flood was scarcely expected, as the previous rain was not heavy, and only lasted twenty hours, but the downfall was heavy in the country and melted the snow. The water rose with extraordinary rapidity, and by ten o’clock the business portion and lowlying residential areas were under water.

There were washouts on the railway line at Mawhraiti, Ikamatua, Totara Flat, and Ngahere. At one place two miles of the line were under water. Trains on the Blackball branch were suspended, seven chains of the line being swept away, which will stop the export of coal from Blackball for two or three weeks.

The Otira line was only slightly damaged. Settlers lost heavily in regard to

live stock. The front street or the town to-day is like a gravel pit, all the railway ballast on the wharf line having been washed thereon, whilst the boundary streets present an appearance noting so much as a huge tailings site.

Business people were astir, and all goods placed counter high, but notwithstanding, a good deal of damage by water and silt, and through broken windows, was done.

The shipping masters and crew had a trying time. Tlie waters receded about three o’clock this morning, and the town is fast returning to its normal appearance.