A RECORD FLOOD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3093, 16 January 1909, Page 5

A RECORD FLOOD.

I .. -c I ENOEMOUS DAMAGE J DOME. j TERRIFIC STORM IN KEEFTON , DISTRICT. BR/.UGii SWEPT AWAY. LARGE AKIiA UNDER WATER. NUMBER OF SHEEP DROWNED. POTATO CROPS RUINED. By Telegraph—Press Associaitori. REEFTON, January 15. The Rccfton district has been visited by a storm unequalled for - years. < Two days' steady rain culminated last evening in a terrific downpour. :In two hours the creeks, already greatly swollen, became roaring torrents, sweeping down tress and bridges, and washing away everything moveable. The damage done is calculated to b2 enormous. The Inangahua County will be a very heavy sufferer. Two piers, erected in connection with the extension of the waterworks now in tho process of construction was washed away with the derrick ropes, apnlianee'3 and a large numbc-r of concrete piles constructed on the banks the Inangahua rive?:. Reefton had 1 a road washed clean away, isolating the electric works which only are now supplied with coal by a passage made through private gardens. All road communications have been cut o(F. Tne damage done in the Murray Creek has been very great. A big block of trees occurred, damming up the water till a boom was made when it burst, carrying all before it. The main traffic bridge over the Inangahua river was endangered by a mass of floating trees, but stood the strain, though it was greatly . shaken. , Great slips occurred all over the ] district. ; Communications between Black's Puint and Crushington is cut off. ] Reports are still coming to hand of i fresh damage at Waitabu, where two i branches of the river re-unite. The flood is the biggest on record. j Acres of laud were flooded, while a . number of sheep belonging to settlers 1 were drowned. 1 Potato crops have been ruined in some places. J