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The Gisborne Photo News

 

52

The Great Flood Of 1960

Elsewhere in this issue of "Photo News" are pictures, mostly taken on Saturday, November 12, which hail the arrival of summer in Gisborne. That weekend was hot and sunny. By midweek, the sky had clouded over, with a moderate easterly wind. By Friday, November 18, the wind had turned to the south-east and freshened, and heavy rain had begun to fall. A home boat in the bay put to sea and the Catchment Board alerted its staff for possible trouble.

After dawn on Saturday, the rain really began to come down. At Waingake, nearly five inches was recorded in three hours. Similar falls in the Waipaoa River catchment over Friday night and Saturday soon brought all tributaries to high flood. Radio warnings went out to all farmers adjacent to the river. At Kanakanaia the level of the Waipaoa rose to 27ft 1in, the highest in 10 years. (1950, 28ft; 1948, 31ft 6in). The Waikohu River was reported to be higher than in 1948.

All day Saturday the rain continued. The devastation in the valley reaches was comparable with similar high floods of other years, was worse in some respects because the peak stayed high for nearly eight hours. Out on the flats, the Catchment Board's control scheme, only one stage short of completion, was to get its most severe challenge yet. The pictures which follow record scenes of the big flood as it swept down to the sea against driving rain and a gale which lashed the whole district with gusts of up to 44 knots.

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Working desperately against the rising river, Patutahi residents spend their Saturday night sand-bagging the bank to keep the flood away from their properties.

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By Saturday afternoon the river was a raging giant. A view looking upstream to the Matawhero bridge from the western bank.

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Saturday, 2 p.m. Catchment Board officials (who were on duty for 24 hours without a break) assess position at earth bank below the Matawhero bridge, which seals off old channel. Plans were in hand to dynamite this bank if cut failed to take full flow.

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Saturday, 3 p.m. Cars scurry down highway to Manutuke, and sheep graze safely in paddock, while river rides high above them.

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Saturday, 5 p.m. At Waerenga-a-Hika, residents take a look at the river, which was to top the banks here later in the evening.

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Saturday, 4 p.m. Catchment Board man with box of gelignite leaves for retaining bank below bridge, while overseer John Leahy drops charges into prepared holes. The charges were never fired, as the cut took the full flow safely.

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Saturday, 5 p.m. The Taruheru at Hansen's Road bridge, before the overflow came. Later the Taruheru was required to handle considerable spill over from the main river, but appeared to do this without difficulty.

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Saturday afternoon. The flood was a big attraction for hundreds of visitors from Gisborne who motored out to the Matawhero bridge to see the raging river for themselves. Many got good and wet in the process.

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Saturday, 10 a.m. Ross Bauld and Brian Laws had a wet job on Saturday morning measuring velocity and sediment content of the river at the Matawhero bridge. Here Ross attaches a sediment bottle to the velocity instrument.

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Sunday, 9 a.m. Enormous pile of debris which piled up against the Gladstone Road bridge in the city.

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Saturday, 3.30 p.m. View up Gladstone Road gives some idea of fury of storm.

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Saturday, 2.30 p.m. Debris coming down the Waimata River through the city.

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Saturday, 10 p.m. The scene at Patutahi on Saturday night was a dramatic one, as local residents rallied in response to a radio appeal, and filled sandbags to build up the low bank near the Lavenham stream. By the light of flares, with the rising river almost overtopping the bank, men hurried to shovel heavy earth into the bags, and dump them on the bank. Their good work kept a major overflow from occurring, although later in the night considerable flood water did find its way through low spots to spread out over nearby farms.

This low portion of the bank, and the one at Waerenga-a-Hika, were designed to allow the river to overflow at these points until such time as the cuts could carry the full flow.

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Even the fair sex was on the job.