Freak storm shuts rail line

An intense freak thunderstorm, which dumped 65mm in 90 minutes on the Mauriceville area north of Masterton on Tuesday night, had farmers, council workers and rail engineers reeling at the intensity of the rain and resulting damage.
Streams transformed into torrents so strong a skinned sheep was discovered impaled on a fence, the railway line was left hanging in mid air when base metal was sluiced away and in other parts submerged under silt, and hillsides were stripped bare of pasture and crops.
Three trains were cancelled and northbound freight diverted through the Manawatu Gorge. OnTrack had workmen out yesterday backfilling and clearing the line. The diverting of trains was not a major problem according to communications advisor Kevin Ramshaw, except for holding up the delivery of high cube containers, which cannot be taken through the tunnels of the Manawatu Gorge.
OnTrack expected trains to be running again on the Wairarapa line north of Masterton by late today.
The railway was undermined after a tiny stream was transformed into a raging torrent, and rushed across the Mauriceville Road just north of the township. It flattened fences, drowned sheep and sluiced out the metal under the railway line, depositing it across paddocks.
The torrent also smashed the huge culvert it's supposed to pass through, and eventually spilled into the Kopuaranga River and ripped out around 100 native plantings that farmer Allan Stuart had planted only a few days earlier.
Mr Stuart has been farming beside the Kopuaranga River for 30 years and knows about flooding, but reckons he's never seen a storm as intense. "The skies just opened up and dumped the water on us." He measured 65mm falling in just 90 minutes from 4.15pm.
"I was driving home along the road about 5.15pm and looked across my paddock beyond the railway line. At first, I wondered where my fences had gone and then I saw the railway metal strewn across the grass. It was a right mess."
Farmer Eric Richardson spent yesterday trying to re-locate stock. He looks after several properties in the Mauriceville area for absentee owners.
He was aghast at the damage the rain had caused to the hillsides, pointing to a hill, which earlier this week had grass seed just starting to establish and was now moonscape in appearance. The grass well washed away across the road and into the river.
Alec Birch, the rural roading engineer for Masterton District Council, said he was sick of having to clear mud from roadways.
"We've just finished tidying up that area after the July floods," he sighed.
He said the damage was more "messy" than serious this time. Culverts were blocked and silt had caused some road stretches to be dangerous for traffic.
Contractors Oldfields spent yesterday grading the roads and clearing slips.
The MetService said the thunderstorm, which hit northern Wairarapa, is part of a low-pressure system stormy pattern that had been predicted to hit the North Island early in October. The thunderstorms hit parts of Auckland on Sunday and have continued through the week in several areas, but especially on the east coast.
There's more rain to come too, according to Bob McDavitt from the MetService, because of a low pressure system in the Tasman Sea which will be crossing the North Island bringing with it several rain bands.
But the future is brighter in the longer term. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research forecasters said yesterday that for the next three months, Wairarapa should have average or above average temperatures, with average or below average rainfall.