DISASTER AT PITCAIRN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1939, Page 5

DISASTER AT PITCAIRN

TERRIBLE HAVOC CAUSED BV CLOUDBURST THOUSANDS OF TREES SWEPT INTO HARBOUR. DAMAGE THAT WILL TAKE YEARS TO REPAIR. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 1. Advice received from Pitcarn Island, dated May 15, stated that damage that will take years .to repair was caused by a cloudburst, which broke over the island two hours before daylight that morning. Landslides carried thousands of timber and food trees from the hillsides down to the harbour, piling them in indescribable confusion along the shore and out into the basin itself, which was filled with many feet of mud.

For miles out from land the sea was discoloured brown and littered with floating vegetation. Two islanders narrowly missed death from rolling stones in an avalanche of mud and silt, which swept down while they were engaged in hauling one of the longboats to safety.

Some of the fleet of canoes were saved by the efforts of the islanders, though their boathouses were smashed to pieces. Twelve inches of rain fell during the four hours that the cloudburst lasted'.

Kitchens were flooded, gardens swept away, roads and pathways turned into roaring streams, carrying thousands of tons of soil into the sea. In the early stages protective trenches were dug to divert the flood from properties, but as the downfall gradually increased in violence, these attempts were abandoned, the trenches filling more rapidly than they could be formed.

Most of the men then concentrated on saving their fishing fleet, making their way to the harbour through fissures feet deep in the landing road, which was almost impassable. Working from a piled mass of trees and mud, which had, by this time, filled almost half the little harbour, they were able to haul many boats and canoes from the rocks. The work was carried on as quickly as possible for fear of further slips which were occurring all the time. Because the main slips took place on' the western side of the island, away from the closely-settled area around the village, there was no loss of life. The contour of the affected quarter and that of the emergency harbour is completely changed. Many of the old landmarks used by fishermen have disappeared. It is probable that another heavy fall of rain will have even worse consequences, as a number of incipient landslides have already been, observed on the hills.