Untitled

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1938, Page 9

The rapidity of the rise of mountain torrents on the West Coast because of heavy rain was illustrated by the experience of two pay-clerks of the Public Works Department at Greymouth, travelling by car to Wekeha, South Westland. At Evans creek;, eight miles north of Harihari, a span of the traffic bridge having been carried away by flood about Easter, it was necessary to proceed through a ford. A lorry towed the car through but in midstream the tow-rope had to be slipped. The waters rose almost level with the glass Of the car doors on the upstream side and poured in, submerging the back seat. The doors on the downstream side had to be opened- to allow the water to escape. Twenty minutes later a more powerful lorry towed the car to the opposite bank and the journey was resumed. Only half an hour before this a reporter was able to negotiate the creek with water scarcely up to the running boards of his car.