Disastrous Floods Hit Nelson

About seven inches of rain fell over Nelson city between the Thursday morning and Sunday morning, but it is estimated that in the catchment areas the fall was much greater than this. The three areas hardest hit by the flooding were in the Nile Street east area and the Brook Street and Annesbrook areas. Flooding in both the Brook Street and Nile Street areas reached a peak on the Saturday night when the Brook Stream burst its banks and the Maitai River overflowed and inundated properties. Culverts in Cleveland Terrace could not hold the fall-off and the roadway and properties above the Nile Street bridge were flooded and strewn with rocks and silt. Another danger to Nile Street hornes occurred on the Monday (August 31) with further heavy rain in the back country and areas of the banks about the bridge and in Mill Street were sand-bagged. Our pic ABOVE was taken in pouring rain from Cleveland Terrace about 5.30 p.m. on the Monday as the latest crisis approached. It shows the river already over its banks and houses being flooded.

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Two lives lost and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to private and public property. This was the cost of floods and slips which followed torrential rain in Nelson and the catchment areas behind the city on the weekend of August 29, 30 and 31.