STRICKEN AREAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 May 1938, Page 7

STRICKEN AREAS

HAWKE’S BAY FLOOD DAMAGE BIG EXPENDITURE INVOLVED FOR RESTORATION £75,000 FOR BRIDGES ALONE (By Telegraph—Press Association). NAPIER, April 30. News that is now slowly drifting in from hitherto inaccessible corners of the province show that the centre of the abnormal rainfall that caused such enormous flood damage in Hawke’s Bay at the beginning of the week was probably in the area bounded by Bay View on the south, the village of Waikare, on the Napier-Wairoa road, to the north, and the Kaweka Range in the west. It was over the same area that the worst damage occurred in the big flood of March 11, 1924. During the flood period this week as much as 28 inches of rain was recorded by Mr H. Guthrie-Smith at Tutira. Following a further aerial investigation by Mr W. L. Newnham, chiefinspecting engineer of the Public Works Department, the toll of damage to roads and bridges is mounting to alarming proportions. “It may take anything up to £75,000 to restore the bridges whfch have been lost as a result of the flooding,” said Mr Newnham. On his flight of inspection Mr Newnham paid particular attention to the Napier-Taupo and Napier-Wairoa roads, and his opinion is that the Taupo road will be opened long before the Wairoa road. The Wairoa road may be closed for weeks, possibly months. During the inspection flight many aerial photographs were taken to assist in the task of planning the work of restoration. “There are at least half a dozen major bridges gone, while a number have been damaged to such an extent I that their replacement is necessary,” said Mr Newnham, after his inspection. ' “Further than that, there are many bridges which have been partially damaged, but which it will be possible to repair. Two bridges on the Wairoa road alone will cost between £ll,OOO and £14,000 to replace.” Mr Newnham said, the department was doing its best to open the Wairoa Road as soon as possible, but there was a great deal to be done. The road was , now open from Wairoa to Sandy Creek, near Tutira, but traffic would have to use the Mohaka Viaduct, and only experienced drivers are advised to undertake the journey. The road would be open only in dry weather, in the meantime, and if further substantial rain fell, it was possible it would be closed again. HELPING HAND VOLUNTEERS ASSIST SETTLERS (By 'Telegraph—Press Association). NAPIER, May 1. Hawke’s Bay proverbial “good neighbour” spirit was never better illustrated than it was yesterday and today, when large parties of volunteer workers went into the Esk Valley to assist the unfortunate residents in the task of clearing their homes and other buildings of silt and other flood debris. The whole valley, before the flood, one of the fairest spots of the whole Dominion, is now a dreary waste of water-logged silt, in some places to a depth of 12 feet or more. CLOUDBURST FOR HOURS EXPERIENCES IN TONGOIO VALLEY NOTHING BUT VAST AREA OF SAND (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NAPIER, April 30. The rainstorm that swept the Tangoio Valley is vividly described by Mr Goodson, teacher at the Tangoio Valley Native School, in a letter to his relatives, Mr and Mrs E. Watson, Auckland, who are at present at Napier. The .letter was brought to Napier by Mr McGregor, A.A. patrolman at Gisborne, who was himself caught by the storm in the Tangoio Valley, and who subsequently reached Napier on foot after an exhausting journey. “Tangoio is gone—it will never be the same again,” Mr Goodson wrote. “I cannot describe it all, but there is only the school and residence standing in a vast area of sand. We have no garden or any food for the cow, and we can all thank God that we are alive to tell the tale. “It was an awful storm, and we had the ‘wind-up,’ ” Mr Goodson continues. “The whole valley was a sea of torrential waters—a cloudburst for hours —with roars like thunder, huge slips and landslides coming down the hills in all directions.” Mr Goodson explained that he was writing under difficulties and would cut down the sentences. He went on to say that they were up all night with lanterns and the water was up to the floor of the house. It was a job to walk against the- flow of water on either'side of the residence. Next day, with the aid of three Maori boys and a friend, he rescued Miss Skinner and Mr McGregor, the A.A patrolman of Gisborne. They had been hanging on to a willow tree all night and were just about exhausted. “The whole of the valley is covered with feet of silt,” he continues. “All the fences are gone and piles of timber, logs and' debris lie everywhere. The school and house grounds are ruined, and the tennis lawn is under water. The road right through the valley past

the school has been washed away or is piled up with silt. In one place the silt is over the tops of the telephone poles. There are dozens of large slips and several houses are in a dangerous position. All the children have been moved into a house up ‘the Point’ for safety.” Mr Goodson said that on Tuesday Mr McGregor and himself managed to make the Eskdale bridge near Mr Spence’s place, after many detours, the journey taking hours. “Imagine a quarter of a mile through soft silt, up to the waist, and dozens of slips as high as a room of soft mud to clamber over,” he continues. “We found the bridge down and had to return without food.”

The condition of the valley and the settlement extending to Eskdale is in a shocking state,” said Mr Goodson. “Apart from the loss of life in the 1931 earthquake, this flood is a far worse tragedy—many are ruined and one source of the country’s income is marred for many a day. The road up to the falls and up to the Devil’s Elbow is gone—a sheer cliff all the way—and the road can never go that way again. The main highway in the future will have to go up the Arapawanui route, and so our school is now near the end of a blind road.” It was believed that Mr Sinclair would never be able to get his motor-cars out unless he cared to toboggan them down the cliffs. LAKE DISAPPEARS RELEASED WATERS HURTLE DOWN GORGE (By Telegragh—Press Association). NAPIER, May 1. Lake Teh'oe, a sheet of water between four and five miles long, about three-quarters of a mile wide and about 260 feet deep, situated at Ngatapa, about six miles downstream from the Mohaka bridge on the NapierTaupo Road, has disappeared. The lake was formed as a result of the earthquake of 1931, when the walls of the Tehoe Gorge collapsed about a mile and half upstream from the junction of the Tehoe River and the Mohaka River. The result was the formation of a dam across the gorge which impounded the waters of the Tehoe River and led to the formation of the lake. It is believed the waters of the lake rose to such a height during the phenomenal rainfall on Monday last that the rush of water over the top of the dam became so great that scouring set in and the dam eventually gave way. The impounded waters then hurtled down the gorge to swell the already flooded Mohaka River, with the result that the traffic bridge lower down the stream on the Napier-Wairoa Road, which has withstood all ordinary floods for a long period of years, was swept away.