The aftermath of flooding in the Esk Valley in April 1938, where up to three metres of silt covered the area. Photo / Hawke's Bay Museums Trust
The aftermath of flooding in the Esk Valley in April 1938, where up to three metres of silt covered the area. Photo / Hawke's Bay Museums Trust
The 1938 Esk River flood was a significant natural disaster, but its effects didn’t stop after the floodwaters subsided.
Records from the time show the silt-choked valley was in the summer following the flood being compared to the American midwest.
Then in January 1939, violent gales swept up the dry silt, turning the valley into a giant dust bowl.
The sky was darkened by the “fine dry dust in choking clouds”. Farmers were forced to stay indoors and seal their houses with all windows shut and crevices around the doors packed with sacks.
The Esk River, whose Māori name is Waiohingānga, has a long history of flooding. It is fed from many small tributaries which drain from the Maungaharuru range, a key driver of the region’s weather, 30km from Napier.
The weather system that caused the Esk Valley floods in April 1938 was caused by warm moist airflow from the northeast, which met a cooler air front from the southeast, and the push upwards of warm air was accentuated due to the ranges of Hawke’s Bay.
The silt-covered Esk Valley after the April 1938 flood. Photo / NR Robertson - Knowledge Bank HB
The Esk River rose 30 feet (9m) in places. Carried down by the tributaries into the Esk River was a muddy siltstone, which in times of great flood, as described by Dr Owen Dine, “transforms the river into a silt-filled torrent carrying debris and trees”.
After the flood waters subsided, and like the February 2023′s Cyclone Gabrielle, silt covered the Esk Valley.
On a seven days’ motor tour around the top half of New Zealand a month after the 1938 Esk Valley Floods, was Mr J G Draper of Northland.
Draper had received a special permit from the Automobile Association to drive through the valley, and he said of the experience: “In some ways, I am sorry I went, for the damage was indescribable.”
The Esk Valley Rd had recently been resurfaced with bitumen, and it places the silt was so high “it was almost possible to reach up and touch the telephone wires.”
A unique perspective of flood relief was observed by Draper. Large numbers of volunteers made their way each day into the valley to clear silt from homes: “When we left on Sunday morning there were innumerable lorry loads of volunteer workers armed with shovels and spades and picks setting out for a day’s work. It was splendid to think men should have spent their holiday assisting their fellow citizens in this way.”
The removal of silt from farmlands was said to be “… out of the question. The farmers will have to start again on the surface of the heavy silt deposit.” In one case in was too hard for a young farmer, and he was found by his father and brother.
Silt deposits in the valley had by May 1938 “been baked hard”, where it had not been over-sown with grass seed.
It was feared in September 1938 that unsown areas would turn the Esk Valley into a “dust nuisance” by blowing off the top layer of dry silt.
The Department of Agriculture recommended that farmers who had not sown their lands do so quickly in Cape barley, which “is thought will combat the dust nuisance by providing a good sward”. It wasn’t to be.
In January 1939, so much dust from the silt deposits was blown away, that ground levels had reduced in some places by five feet (1.5m).
Some paddocks had by virtue of the gales, as one farmer proclaimed “..have taken every speck of sand off two of my largest paddocks”.
It wasn’t a blessing, however, for all the valley, and while a lot of the silt was blown out to sea, most of it covered roads, or piled up against houses, buildings, hedges and other objects – requiring removal once again.
Living conditions in the valley because of the gales had become unbearable. Many farmers showed signs of nervous strain after a fortnight of breathing in grit, swallowing grit with their food, and even suffering irritation in bed from grit which penetrated their sheets and blankets.
A repeat of the flood disaster should be prevented, stated prime minister Michael Joseph Savage: “Whatever is humanly possible for the government to do to relieve the situation will be done.”
But in 1939 there were other clouds brewing apart from the Esk Valley dust – at least metaphorically – those of war in Europe.
For the next 10 years the war effort and subsequent recovery occupied New Zealand.
* Historian Michael Fowler will be holding his talk “Parawhenuamea: The Untamed Rivers of Hawke’s Bay” on Wednesday 28 June, 5.30pm at the Century Theatre Napier. Cost $20 + fees. Book online at Eventfinda.co.nz. Some door sales available. Proceeds to Surf Lifesaving New Zealand: Hawke’s Bay Search and Rescue Squad.
