HOUSES WRECKED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1939, Page 6

HOUSES WRECKED

UNDERMINED RESIDENCE TOPPLES OVER FLOOD WATERS SCOUR RAVINE IN HILLSIDE. SERIOUS DAMAGE IN WELLINGTON. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. Undermined when flood waters scoured hundreds of tons of earth from the steep hillside below Carlton Road, Lyall Bay, yesterday, the house of Mr and Mrs C. R. Dunce, Qu&sn’s Drive, toppled over and was completely wrecked. Many other properties in Queen's Drive and Torn Street were covered by silt, in some places to a depth of several feet, and the roadway at the junction of the two streets was blocked. The hillside when the scouring occurred is formed of sandy soil which offered little resistance to the water. About 15 months ago a bad slip occurred there, starting above Carlton Road and blocking Sutherland Road. Repair work was carried out by the city council, but it failed completely yesterday. CASCADE OF WATER. Early in the morning a cascade of water began pouring down a flight of wooden steps beside Mr Dunce s house leading from Sutherland Road to Queen's Drive, and it steadily increased in volume. Protective walls at the back of the house collapsed with a crash at about 9 o'clock, and the steps carried away immediately afterward. Water mains, gas mains, and sewers were carried away also. Left unprotected, the foundations of the house were rapidly undermined by the torrent of water. The chimneys fell and the fireplace collapsed inside the house. Realising their danger, Mr and Mrs Dunce and their two children left taking personal belongings witii them. For a period it appeared that the house would not collapses, but a further movement of the hillside took place after midday and the house quietly toppled over on to its side at 12.39 p.m. The ravine created by the slip extends from Carlton Road right down to the flat. Lengths of about 80 feet of Sutherland Road and Carlton Road were carried away and much work will be required to rebuild them. DEPOSIT OF SILT. Silt was deposited over an area of about a quarter of an acre below Mr Dunce's house. It completely covered the garden of 140 Queen’s Drive, an apartment house, where considerable damage was done on the ground floor. Other houses affected were those of Mr A. W. Cooke, 132 Queen’s Drive, Mr P. Sullivan, 142 Queen’s Drive, and Mr F. J. Twiss, 144 Queen’s Drive. All of them were invaded by silt and slush. Houses in Torn Street did not suffer, but much damage was done to gardens. Only a skeleton city corporation staff was on duty yesterday, and a gang was not on the scene till the middle of the morning. Nothing could have been, done before then, however. The scouring has destroyed drainage, water, gas, and electric power services, and a number of residences will be inconvenienced till repairs can be made. Telephone wires also came down. SHIFTED BODILY KARORI HOUSE PUSHED " FORWARD. SHOCK FOR OCCUPANTS. WELLINGTON, This Day. Thrust off its foundations by a moving clay bank, a five-roomed wooden house at 37 Nottingham Street, Karori, was moved seven feet forward and wrecked yesterday morning. .The house was shifted about a foot forward by a slip of clay during the heavy rain a fortnight ago. and it has not been occupied since. The previous slip crushed in the washhouse at the back, threw the dwelling out of plumb and cracked a chimney. The house was occupied by Mr and Mrs R. T. Norton and their daughter, aged 13, but when the damage occurred two weeks ago they left the house and have since lived with their nextdoor neighbours. Mi - and Mrs J. A. Rabbitt. It was not till 9.20 yesterday morning that the clay, loosened by the heavy rain, began to move the house forward. At 9.30 there was a loud crash as the chimney broke away. Timber was torn off the building as the house moved off its foundations. For an hour it continued to slide forward appreciably, and even by late afternoon it had not settled. “Our children were terrified by the noise,” said Mrs Rabbitt. when interviewed. “It gave us a nasty shock as we were not expecting anything like that to happen.” Two rooms at the back of the house have been stove in by the pressure of the bank, the front porch has been torn off. floors have buckled and doors jambed. A motor-car which was in a garage at the front of the house was half-buried by clay, which forced in the back of the garage. It was dug mil during the day. Should the bank continue to slip it it possible that the next door house will 1)0 damaged, as a considerable quantity of clay has already fallen against a corner of the dwelling.