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Catastrophes on rail, rivers and land

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1918 snow storm

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Boris Daniels and his 22km journey on famous skis

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Natural Events

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NameNatural EventsDescriptionThis collection documents a range of historic and contemporary natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and extreme weather events.

The great snowstorm of 1918 struck the area just four months before the end of the First World War, blocking roads and races for several days. There were no graders back then, so it was a case of ‘stay cosy and wait it out’. There were no cell phones either, so getting messages out was tricky. So what a conundrum when authorities desperately needed to send a message to the power station at Lake Coleridge. You can read about how Boris Daniels, an employee with the Public Works Department, came to the rescue on skis!

Another devastating snowfall occurred in August 1973. There was 300mm of snow on the flat, up to one metre on the higher country roads and drifts over two metres in other places. It took a devastating toll on livestock. The council had to dig pits to bury more than 2500 dead sheep. Army tracked vehicles were used to rescue people from 40-odd cars trapped between Castle Hill and Porters Pass. Power and telephone lines were decimated and the fuses blew on the Darfield water-supply.

The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes caused more chaos for our district. More recently, we've been hit with a series of floods. In May 2021, intense rain struck the Mid Canterbury region forcing many people to evacuate the area. A state of emergency remained in place for a week. Burnham Military camp provided people and equipment to assist locals affected by floods, with more than 40 army personnel engaged in the rescue effort. They evacuated over 50 people, six dogs and six cats across the district, as well as distributing 10,000 litres of drinking water and delivering food to remote locations.

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Mt White bridge after flood, December 1979

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CollectionCatastrophes on rail, rivers and landEvent1918 snow stormImageBoris Daniels and his 22km journey on famous skis

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Natural Events