WELLINGTON FLOODS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1939, Page 6

WELLINGTON FLOODS

SLIPS ON HILLSIDES MANY HOUSES INUNDATED. FOUNDATIONS OF BUILDING CARRIED AWAY. Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. Four 48 inches of rain were recorded at the Kelburn Observatory up to nine o’clock this morning, most of it falling from ten o’clock last night onward. The rain eased off at eleven a.m. but approximately another halfinch will have fallen up to noon. The residents at the back end of Karori are again sufferers from flooding. Already numerous slips have occurred. about the hill roads and properties. A very serious slip occurred when many thousands of yards of the sandy hillside overlooking Lyall Bay started to break away at 6 a.m. This was the scene of a serious slip fifteen months ago and the repair work failed completely. A length of three chains in Sutherland Road and a shorter length in Carlton Road, still higher on the hillside, broke away, smashing the storm water and drainage service and carrying off the foundations of the house of. Mr C. R. Dunce, 132 A, Queen’s Drive. A huge amount of silt swept down across Queen’s Drive, flooding four houses here and a dozen more houses in Toru Street. Dunce’s house will have to be demolished.

The City motor camp at Miramar is not affected, but the motor camp with 150 cars at Scots' College is very badly flooded, about a third of the parties being surrounded by water. The aerodrome is quite unusable today. The Exhibition grounds were not flooded.

The rain does not appear to have been heavy in the hills. The Hutt River is practically unaffected. The whole of the Petone and Lower Hutt areas, however, are carrying a large amount of surface water.

The Happy Valley Road is completely blocked. The Parade at Island Bay is flooded for about a third of a mile and there are a number of houses with water over the floors. A new outfall drain burst and trams are unable to reach the terminus. There are several large slips on the surrounding hillsides, including one against a house. December is now definitely the wettest month Wellington has known. The rainfall as recorded at Kelburn is 15 inches, five times the normal quantity for the month. With the flood of a couple of weeks ago hardly drained away the present one is likely to - linger, the ground being already so sodden. ' Kelburn’s 4.48 inches is not the heaviest fall. Last night the Beacon’s Hill gauge recorded G. 15 inches.