HEAVY FLOODS AT THAMES HAWKE’S BAY.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 227, 8 December 1893, Page 5

HEAVY FLOODS AT THAMES HAWKE’S BAY.

The heavy rains which we have experienced during the past week seem to have been very insignificant compared with the downpour in other parts, especially in the Thames and Hawkes’ Bay districts. In the former place the Karaka Creek rose five feet in as many minutes and the streets of Grahamstown were flooded so rapidly that tradesmen have suffered heavily bydamage done to their stocks, Several bridges have also been swept away and some thousands of pounds of damage done. In the Hawke’s Bay district the flood is the heaviest on record. Napier escaped serious results but Clive and Meanee, two thriving districts, are said to be one huge mass of water. Crops and buildings have been destroyed, people have had to leave their homes, farmers are sailing about in boats, and the whole scene is described as most saddening. Some persons are known to have been drowned and further cases will probably yet be discovered. Some sixty miles of country between Napier and Ormond villa are inundated and the loss in crops, sheep arid cattle is very great—it is already estimated at 20,000 sheep and hundreds of horses and cattle. Two 60 feet spans of the Waipawa railway bridge have been swept away and great damage done to roads and other public works.