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The Gisborne Photo News

 
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No 164 : February 28, 1968

36

Only 30 Years Ago!

Does time fly or doesn't it? Thirty years ago this month the tragic disaster that took 21 lives occurred at Kopuawhara, This was the flood on the night of February 18, 1938, when 20 men and a woman lost their lives in a railway construction camp. A cloudburst back in the hills turned the river into a raging torrent which overwhelmed the single men's quarters of the camp. The woman who was drowned was a waitress who slept in a hut behind the cookhouse.

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The construction camp before the disaster.

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Decking being placed on a bridge to reestablish communications.

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Four huts before and after the flood.

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All that was left after the tragedy.

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The subsidence as seen from the Tolaga Bay end of the bridge.

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A view of the bridge from the side.

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© 2012 H B Williams Memorial Library
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