Disastrous Floods.
Southern Rivers Overflow their Banks
Towns Under Water
Many Residents Marooned
Damage £200,000
By Telegraph—Press Association,
Christehurclj, Last Night.
.S-s the result of a nor'-wester oil Thursday and Friday, the Waimakariri river oil Saturday was in high llijod. At 11 o'clock in the morning the north road from Ohaney's was impassable for cars or cycles, but traps could get along. About half a mile past the Empire bridge the water on the road reached a depth of 2ft. (Jin. The Clarkville district was flooded as far north as tlie school. In many places the water was up to the top of the fences.
pounds. At Mataura an eight-roomed house was washed away. Numbers of people are marooned in the paper mills and the higher parts of the township.
In Wyndham there arc; four feet of water in the Main street. The Ensign, the evening paper, was not able to publish, there being four feet of water in the machine room.
Dead sheep were floating down the main stream in large numbers. A good deal of the Hooded area is in potatoes, which will be ruined if the water does not get away quickly. Several big crops of beans are likely to be washed away. The mailman from Kaiapoi could not get through to Coutt's Island, oh account of floating' stacks of grain.
J Fuller particulars -,vill be telegraphed J later, when it is possible to reach the | telegraph office by other means than } a boat. There are only two boats in bore, and' ' these are being actively used in rescuing J residents from the roofs of houses and J other perilous places. Several telegraphj Ms bad gone to the office before the j main flood came sweeping through the I main street. They have been marooned J there all day, and are communicated with by telephone. One of the boats provided j them with refreshments during tlie day. THREE HUNDRED HOUSES SUBMERGED. GREAT LOSS OF SHEEP, CATTLE AND HORSES. Gore, Last Night. There was a devastating Hood round ! Gore early on Saturday morning. The damage to the town and district is estimated at over £200,000. At least 300 houses in Gore alone are submerged, and ail the business portion of the town is inundated. I
The river overflowed to about three j miles past the old intake of the north branch. The north branch and the Eyre are not flooded. At 2 o'clock the water had covered a paddock owned by Mr. W. Tubman, and the North road, between Chaiicy's and the Belfast Hotel, for a distance of about half a mile, was two feet deep in water. The Hood waters subsided by 5 o'clock
Both expresses from the soxith were delayed two hours. Last night the ferry steamers were held back to connect with the second" express.
THE RANG [TATA TX FLOOD.
RAILWAY BRIDGE DAMAGED.
RAKAIA RUNS A MILE WIDE,
Ashburton, Last Night.
"Warm rains on the hills last niglit melted the snow and caused one of the largest floods , every known in the Rangitata river. It started to rise about 5 o'clock last evening, and the flood was at its height at 7, o'clock this morning. Four piles of the? briuge spanning the north branch of the river were washed out, and the brihge was rendered unsafe for railway traffic, which in consequence has been completely disorganised. Trains are unable to cross the bridge, and passengers have to be transferred to another train on reaching. the structure, and the luggage and mails trolleyed across.
I Thousands of sheep and iiunureus of i horses and cattle have been carried I down the river. The late harvest is lost. J A torrent five feet deep flowed down \ the Main street all Saturday, and enI tered all the shops, doing damage in ) seme cases as high as £2500. J Mataura and Wyndham also suffered ■severely. No loss of life is reported, but rescue parties bad a hazardous time in a poor ! light.
A relief committee lias been formed to arrange for a supply of provisions, which are very short. WASHOUTS OX RAILWAY. < GREAT DAMAGE. INFLICTED. A MAX DROWNED. Invereargill, Last Night. Railway communication from Gore to the south has been cut off since late on Friday night, and it is doubtful if it will be 'restored to-morrow. At Gore there were five feet of water in the Main street on Saturday, and enormous damage has resulted to shops and business premises.
It is reported that the damage will he repaired on Sunday, and trains will be able to cross the bridge again on Monday.
The river began to recede, after 8 o'clock this morning, and by noon had lowered three feet.
The Rakaia river is' also in heavy Hood, and is a magnificent sight, the v aters being a mile wide, and the stream running torrcntially bank to bank. There has been no damage done to the bridge so far. DAMAGE AT THE HERMITAGE. Tiniaru, Last Night. The damage to ■ the Rangitata bridge by the flood on Saturday morning (said (o he the highest for thirty years) dislocated the train traffic. Only passenger trains were, run. and these were much delayed. The expresses from the north and the Territorial trains were each four hours late here. The passengers. mails and luggage crossed the river on the sheep bridge attached to the railway bridge. The trains meeting on this side had to run the locomotives backwards one way, with a light engine ahead; therefore progress was slow, and the exchange over one long narrow bridge took a long time. The damage consists of four of ithe eight piles forming one pier at the centre of the north bridge being undermined or broken, and the other four leaned over under pressure of the. current, making a kink in the line. This was straightened yesterday. A strong repair gang is at work, nml it. is hoped that the bridge will lie restored by tomorrow. One small subsidence took place in the pcrmament way on Rangitata Island, but was soon remedied.
A large number of plate-glass windows have been broken. Hav-stucks brought down by the river landed in a monumental mason's yard and smashed seven or eight monuments. Stock came down the river in great quantities, also sheaves and stacks. An estimate of the public and private damage in Gore alone is :C 100,000.
Reports from the Five Rivers -district indicate that the flood there is particularly bad, and heavy loss of stock and crops resulted. On the Mataura river, near Gore, partitions have been erected to prevent the bridge rushing away. Sir. Dodds, a farmer at Mataura, has lost a thousand sheep.
One- hundred and fifty families at .Mataura had to be lodged on the higher levels, and 105 people took refuge in the paper mills all day on Saturday, food being sent to them l>y means of a wire. The mills are .much damaged, estimated at over .CIOOO. There is a big washout on the main line south of Matnura, the railway embankment and traffic road adjacent to the bridge being washed away for several chains.
T!i(j river rose during the-night, and ;it 7.30 was eijrht feet above, the norma] level. It had gone down half that by the mornina'.
The Hood was also very extensive in the western districts, the reports indicating that there have been extensive washouts on the railway at Fairfax, Oporo, Makarewa and Winton, and also north of Winton.
The Hermitage reports that the flood has subsided there. The annexe was somewhat undermined, and listed, and the small outhouses have gone.
Ohintau reports that a man named Younger was drowned on Saturday when attempting to rescue some stock.
The roads are much damaged, and the mails must be packed through for a few da vs.
One farmer at Makarewa estimates nis loss at £OOO, and there are many others who have suffered equally with him. IirXDTIKDS MAROONED AT GORE. IN DANGER OF STARVING.
Mr. Lysnar, through the train being late, missed a good meeting of farmers. He addressed a few on Bristol as a distributing port.
WATMEA PLAIXS IXUXDATED. CORE UXDEI! WATER. MATATRA RESIDENTS MAROO-NliD. HOUSES WASHED AWAY. Wellington, Last The Mataura river has practically overflowed tlie Waiinea Plains, doing an immense amount of damage to crops.
W'YXDIIAM COMPLETELY ISOLATED. TRAFFIC BRIDfiE CARRIED AWAY. Hoi'p, Last Night. At Core on Saturday there wore vpral hundred people marooned on, the railway platform. Tliev sent to Inver'■avgill for provisions, and Police Inspector Norwood, with a party of assistants, took a motor lorry with a load of bread
stock and other property. Tlie river overflowed its at Gore, and the water is five feet deep in the. main business part of the town. It is impossible to estimate the amount of the damage, and it will run into many thousands of
The only two railway lines which have escaped are the BlufT and Seaward Busl
SEVERE GALE IX WELLINGTON.
FLOOD IX CANTERBURY.
DUX EDIX IN DARKNESS.
Wellington, Saturday. Heavy gales raged here last night. The wind blew with terrific force, and was accompanied by blinding showers of rain. Fences were blown down and some smnll buildings and windows smashed. The wind subsided this morning) but rain still threatens.
Ashburton, Saturday. On the arrival of the first express from Christchurch passengers were greeted with the announcement that the Raugitata bridge was unsafe and that all passengers for south of Rangitata would be conveyed bv trolley over the river. The train waited half an hour here, and then proceeded south. .
The stationmaster says he has no definite, knowledge of the position, but newsfrom other sources tends to show that heavy wind and rain in the back conntry yesterday caused the river to rise very quickly, with the result that therewas a heavy flood last night, and theapproaches to the railway bridge at both ends were so seriously damaged as to make extreme caution on the part of the authorities necessiirv.'
Dnnedin, Saturday. Yesterday's storm carried away the' Waipori fluming, which means that the city lighting will, be extinguished tonight, as the reserve plant is needed! for providing power for the electric tram system.
reaching Gore at II o'clock on Saturday night after a most strenuous journey. Wyndham is completely cut off, and it is feared tliat the traffic bridge over the Mataura river, close to the township, has been carried away.
Numerous road and railway bridges in various parts of Southland have been washed down the Mataura river. It is stated that the cries» of cattle being swept down the Mataura river, near Gore, were heartrending. To-day (Sunday) is beautiful, and the waters are everywhere receding. Hie flood is undoubtedly a record one, and the damage must amount to several hundred thousand pounds.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19130331.2.41
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 284, 31 March 1913, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,791Disastrous Floods. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 284, 31 March 1913, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.