WELLINGTON UNDER WATER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 29, 12 January 1940, Page 48

WELLINGTON UNDER WATER

2ZB's Broadcast Description of Flood

HEN’ Wellington awoke on the \X/ morning of Wednesday, December 27, the general comment was "It's been raining." It certainly had! Many people who had retired on Tuesday evening early, were blissfully unaware of the fact that the heavens had opened with a vengeance until they put up their blinds the next morning. Never has Wellington had a wetter» month, and rarely, if ever, has ‘there been a greater rainfall than recorded between the hours of 4 p.m. on Tuesday and 8 p.m. Wednesday. During that time some 53 inches fell.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the occupants of the motor camp in the grounds of Scots College, Miramar, had to vacate their tents in a hurry. The water was rising rapidly, until by nine o’clock in the morning, there was over three feet of water covering the ground. The position became uncomfortable, and then serious. Camping gear, tents, sleeping bags and many blankets were impossibly soaked. In the middle of their holiday, people had to prepare to abandon camp. This was the situation which faced the party of investigators from 2ZB when ip answer to a call, they went to inspect the flood damage. It so happened that 2ZB was able to bring into commission, the short wave transmitter which tbe Commercial Broadcasting Service uses in conjunction with 5ZB, the Exhibition Station, and as a consequence, " Mac" was able to give a running commentary on the posilion at

Scots College about the time when the more serious side of the flood was beginning to abate. The: broadcast from the camping ground was pieked up from the short wave transmitler by 2ZB, and re-broad-cast. " Mac’s " description of theMlooded ground, the campers’ difficulties, and the efforts of many kindly neighbours to relieve their distress, was clearly heard over a wide area. During the earlier part of the evening, many of the unfortunate people who were caught in the deluge, took

shelter in the building of the Miramar auxiliary telephone exchange and were very glad of the haven it provided. One of the sights which " Mac" said, was frequent in the grounds of the college, was that of shivering and irate campers, making their tedious way from the discomfort of an inundated tent to the comparative dry land of the playing area’s banks, with load after load of sopping gear retrieved from somewhere under the flood waters. In the earlier part of the day, many messages were broadeast from 2ZB calling for assistance for those who had been caught, and the response was immedjiate. Many a wet and wearied camper was thankful for assistance given by 2ZB and other willing helpers. But the disconcerted campers had their laugh, because the 2ZB Outside Broadcast Van got well and truly bogged and a lorry had to be requisitioned to get it out.