HEAVY FLOODS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1942, Page 3

HEAVY FLOODS

DAMAGE ON WEST COAST SLIPS ON ROADS AND RAILWAY LINES. COAL PRODUCTION DISRUPTED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) GREYMOUTH, April 7. Six days of heavy rain caused severe damage to roads and railway lines on the West Coast, resulting in the disorganisation of coal production in the Grey district. Up till this morning 926 points of rain had fallen in Greymouth since the beginning of the month, with the result that the rivers have been continuously flooded without overflowing their banks in inhabited areas. By far the most serious effect of the floods is damage to the railway line from Dunollie to Rewanui, which provides the outlet for the Liverpool State mine. On this section of approximately three miles there are two subsidences, three washouts and seven slips. One slip alone is two and a half chains long, 4.0 feet wide and 12 feet deep. At one subsidence the whole support for the line has disappeared for over one and a half chains, having been carried into a deep gorge round which the steep line winds, and it will be necessary to bridge the gap. Gangs of men from all parts of the West Coast are engaged on the restoration of the’ line, but it is estimated that it will be at least a fortnight before it will be' open and enable the Liverpool mine to resume. Two trains are at present marooned one at Rewanui since Saturday night and the other half-way up the incline since last night. The Liverpool mine, with its output of almost 800 tons of coal daily, is the largest in the Grey district and employs more than 300 men. The Strongman and James State mines were also idle today in consequence of a slip on the road between Rapaho and the Nine Mile, coupled with a wash-out on the line near the Rapaho station, but both may be able to resume tomorrow. More serious damage occurred at four co-operative mines up the Ten Mile Creek. It is estimated that production will be impossible for a fortnight as the result of slips covering the haulage road serving all these mines and further damage at the individual mines. Damage at Harrison and party’s mine is- estimated at £lOOO, all the equipment, including the winchhouse, bath-house and gantry, being swept away by a laridslide. The bins at Kaye and party’s mine and Armstrong and party’s mine have been severely damaged.