The Aftermath

Sunday, 9 a.m. After Waikanae Beach had been practically cleared of debris ready for the holiday season, all the work was undone in 24 hours, and the beach was once again blanketed in a thick and tangled covering of driftwood.

Sunday, 10 a.m. A car negotiating flood waters on O'Grady's Road at Waerenga-a-Hika. By this time the rain had stopped.

Sunday, 10.30 a.m. Flooded farm lands seen from the balcony of the Waerenga-a-Hika hotel.

By chance the Minister for Works, Mr H. Watt, was in the district on the Monday, and on Tuesday morning he was taken on an inspection tour of the flooded areas. Later a committee was set up to administer Government relief. These pictures were taken during the Minister's tour.

A Bailey bridge being erected over a washout on the main highway near Te Karaka.

Mr R. A. Keeling, Member for the District, talking with two farmers in the Puha district who were especially hard hit, Messrs Manning and Lister.

Mr Manning showing his flooded farm to the Minister. Also in the picture are Mr W. V. Clark, deputy chairman of Cook County Council, Mr A. H. Reeves, chairman of the Poverty Bay Catchment Board, and Mr D. O. Haskell, District Commissioner of Works.

At Waerenga-a-Hika, Mr J. Brown was spokesman for the settlers. The Minister was also met at Patutahi, where Mr H. H. Dods was the speaker.

Two men were drowned in the flood, one in the Mohaka district south of Wairoa, and one at Tokomaru Bay. The occupants of this car were luckier. Swept off the concrete ford in Lytton Road, between Ormond Road and Hapara Road, in the dark hours, it was quickly submerged in the swollen stream. The three young people who had been in it were lucky to escape.

By Sunday morning the stream had dropped enough to reveal the car's whereabouts, 30 or 40 yards below the ford.

Salvage operations

Interior after salvage

The car being hauled out of the stream.

Tuesday, 11.30 a.m. The great lake at Tangihanga, on the Lavenham Road side of the river, between Patutahi and Kaiteratahi, immediately north of the Ormond Loop. The Lavenham Road is in the foreground. The Waipaoa is not visible but is at the far side of the lake.

Sunday morning. With this home at Makauri surrounded by the floodwaters, Noeline Higgins and Peter Torrie have to do some wading.

Conclusion: That the Catchment Board scheme had certainly saved the plains from a major disaster comparable with 1948 and 1950.

Tuesday. The Ormond Loop, south of the Tangihanga lake, after the flood had partially subsided. The whole of the area contained by the loop is thickly covered with a layer of mud. In the distances: Kaiti Hill.

Tuesday. The Lavenham Stream at Patutahi as the flood-waters subsided. It was typical of hundreds of similar watercourses in the district which were running bank to bank at the flood's height.

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The Gisborne Photo News

No 78 : December 8, 1960

The Aftermath