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~ \ CYRIL ELLIS, a young postal clerk from promised to make this the gayest Shocked, Ellis watched the train's Taihape, in New Zealand's North Island, Christmas in New Zealand's history. death plunge. The engine went down glanced at his watch. It was 10 pm. He But they were wrong. Laughter was with a bellowing splash, hitting the far wanted to get home early, for in two about to change to terror. Already the bank. The tender and the first carriage hours it would be Christmas Day, 1953. events were taking place outside. went with it. The second carriage reared That was when Ellis heard the roar of Grabbing a torch from his truck, the up, nose first, then dragged the next angry waters coming from the Wangaehu young clerk raced down the line waving three cars into the seething flood. River, not far from Tangiwai. He was as- the beam as the distance between him The carriages rolled over and over tounded. There had been no rain, no and the train rapidly closed. through the swirling waters while reason for floods. When the train was less than 50 metres passengers tried desperately to break Ramming down the accelerator of his away, Ellis leapt clear of the tracks and windows. Others shrieked hopelessly, truck he raced up to the road bridge that shouted at the top of his voice as the trapped and injured, until they found spanned the river. It was not just locomotive rushed past. watery graves. flooding. The river was boiling and But the torch's beam was not seen, nor Ellis watched these carriages being seething, driven to a frenzy by tremen- could the engine crew hear his voice, rolled over like logs under the assaults of dous pressures. drowned by the shriek of steam, the towering eight metre (25-foot) waves. Then Ellis saw the 50-year-old railway thunder of steel wheels on steel rails and And, above the awesome sounds of the bridge. It was almost awash. Great the surf-like roar of the Wangaehu waters, he heard the screams of the trap- boulders and chunks of ice crashed River. ped passengers as they were hurled against its piers. He could see the bridge Seconds later the Wellington-Auckland downstream. trembling under the massive assault. express hurtled to its doom, taking 151 Ellis saw the sixth carriage had stop- Ellis looked southwards and saw a livess-with it. ped at a 45 degree angle, half its length headlight. At first he thought it was When Cyril Ellis realised his frantic projecting beyond the sheared-off rails another car, then he realised it was the signals had not been seen he could do of the bridge. He climbed in the back. light of an approaching train. It was nothing but stand frozen with horror and Most of the passengers were still in about 1.5 km (one mile) away, watch the express hurl itself on to the their seats, not knowing what had hap- but he guessed it was travelling at bridge's approaches. pened. Ellis called, "Get out, please! " a good 100 km/h (60 miles an hour). For a fleeting moment he thought the As they staggered to their feet the back On board the brightly-lit express 285 locomotive might make it. If it did the coupling holding the carriage snapped. passengers laughed and sang carols as the lighter carriages would have a chance. The carriage with Ellis and 22 passengers train sped down the steep grade from But he hoped vainly, for when the engine plunged into the river. Waiouru towards Tangiwai bridge. They was about three-quarters of the way Ellis still had his torch when the lights were making the trip from Wellington across the bridge disappeared from failed. The car rolled over several times, especially to see the Queen, whose visit under it. came to rest on its side. Water poured through it, but the carriage was an- chored against the boulder-strewn river bed. Ellis knocked out a window with his elboW. With another man, John Holman, who also won the George Medal, Ellis managed to get out every passenger ex- cept one girl, who was trapped in her seat with her head under water. Ellis and Holman extricated a man who had been pinned under a wrecked door with only his head above water. They saved another who was lying on the floor with his feet caught under a seat. The black volcanic silt that came down InWINNOW$117!ii:RMI,

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with the wall of water took many lives. The army personnel were followed by an 80-tonne concrete pier, smashed from One survivor was so covered with silt and police, doctors, nurses and a fleet of am- its foundations by the hurtling debris oil from the locomotive's tender that he bulances converging from all points in and swept away by a force almost beyond could neither see nor speak. Rescuers the district. calculation. found one badly injured woman buried Soon the searchlights as well as beams But the bodies of the dead could be up to her neck in silt and oily black ash. from motor vehicles had transformed the seen as bulldozers scooped them from the Indicative of the flood's tremendous dark river into a starkly brilliant tableau mud-covered river banks. force was the subsequent find of bodies of sheer terror. The acrid smell of the sulphur which 130 km (80 miles) downstream from the The locomotive, with its crewmen the stream brings down from the volcano bridge. It was also discovered that other dead, lay on its side near the river bank. hung in the air as bulldozers dug for bodies had been driven 160 km (100 Steam hissed from its belly while oil was more bodies by the muddy banks. The miles) to the river's mouth and then out sucked from its fractured metal and river had settled to a sluggish, dirty- into the Tasman Sea. swept downstream in great black pat- brown stream winding slowly to the sea. New Zealand received the first scanty ches. Rescuers found a woman's green over- reports of the catastrophe when Arthur Now having done its fearful work, the coat, soaked and muddy; a baby's bat- Bell, of Raetihi, who was driving towards river began receding, allowing the rescue tered highchair; a tiny red purse, with Tangiwai with his wife, sighted the teams to release the trapped and recover 5s 4d still in it, and a leather-bound diary wrecked bridge. the dead in conditions that did not with the final entry on December 24, Skidding the car to a halt, Bell raced threaten their own lives. "Left Wellington for Auckland by train towards the river bank and found himself The coming of the dawn brought a to see the Queen". staring at a series of enormous waves try- broad perspective to the limited field il- They put aside anything that might ing to batter the Wellington-Auckland luminated by the searchlights. The scene help in identifying victims. They took en- express to matchwood. was even more sickening now than it had tire stretcher-loads of scrap clothing and Bell shouted at his wife to drive to a been by night. luggage back to Waiouru camp. nearby forestry camp and raise the Everywhere lay the ink-black volcanic Soon it was realised that it would be alarm. Then he began crawling down the mud, the great boulders that had come to many days, perhaps weeks, before iden- river bank to save as many lives as he rest as the river lost its venom. tification was completed. The passengers could. Near the river bank lay the had 'gone to their deaths as seat numbers The first organised rescue team came locomotive, dead and cold. in railway carriages. There was no list of from the nearby Waiouru military camp. Four broken carriages lay near the the names of people on the express. Quickly the men set a battery of sear- bridge. The other could not be sighted. It Looking down on this grim Christmas chlights and flooded the horror scene was several miles away down the river. scene was the snow-white pyramid of Mt. with beams of white light. Exactly 70 metres from the bridge was Ruapehu, stark and unnaturally

Page 14 — DISASTER! •

tit4** Engine Tender Attached to Coach '-'r7rx"r7 • . .

Rood Bridge on Rescue Worker! •

THE TANGIWAI tragedy . . . the scene the morning after the bridge collapsed. Left, the locomotive and a carriage lay close by one of the bridge girders while, above, the extent of the devastation is clearly shown. The tragedy was com- pounded by the inability to identify all the victims. A mass burial was undertaken . . . and the Duke of Edinburgh at- tended the service.

beautiful in the early morning light, immediately reported back for duty. metres, 9175 feet), an active volcano seemingly remote from the tragedy and Heavy army ambulances rumbled in and with a crater full of hot water. yet the cause of it all. out of the camp. Experts found that 18,000 million New Zealand's Prime Minister (Mr. S. One of the largest huts was turned into litres (400 million gallons) of water had G. Holland) was called from his bed at a temporary morgue. crushed through the ice barriers of its midnight and told of the crash. Before he By evening rows of white-shrouded great crater lake and swept down into left Auckland by car at 3 am Holland ap- bodies lay in the hut. Sad-eyed friends Wangaehu River. pointed an executive commission to and relatives viewed dozens of bodies The surging torrent, carrying volcanic handle relief and later inquire into the whose features were virtually erased, ash and great chunks of ice, tore down disaster. wondering whether this had been their the river uprooting trees and pushing He ordered taxi drivers to be sent out loved one on the train. Part of the heart- huge boulders before it. It struck the rail to rouse rail executives and rescue ex- breaking task was to examine mud- bridge with a roar, loosening the founda- perts and rush them to Tangiwai. soaked scraps of clothing. tions of the massive 80-tonne concrete By 9 am Holland had reached Tangiwai On Boxing Day the tiny camp post of- piers, minutes before the train reached and was helping to organise rescue work. fice at Waiouru was crowded with men it Early in the afternoon, sitting in his trying to phone news to wives and The local Maoris have always avoided shirtsleeves at emergency headquarters mothers waiting at home. the scene like poison. They call the set up in Waiouru military camp, he By December 27 humid conditions stream The River Of Death. spoke to the nation over an emergency were affecting the bodies in the army No fish swim in Sulphur Creek, no lush radio hook-up. morgue. As a result a special train was vegetation grows along its banks. Cattle It was from their own Prime Minister ordered to transport them to Wellington. and sheep won't drink its muddy water. that New Zealanders heard that 166 were It was an enormous task, for already Maoris say the river has an evil smell and believed killed in the Dominion's worst 114 of the victims had been recovered, refuse to cross the bridge. rail smash. Days later the figure was half of whom had been identified. Experts blame the sulphur which the reduced to 151. The entire nation, led by Queen Wangaehu River brings down from the Radio broadcasts throughout the day Elizabeth, prayed that day as the death volcano. The Maoris say it is a bad river gave names of victims as they were train set out on the journey to Wellington because its source, Ruapehu, is an evil identified. New Zealand's Royal and during the mass, funeral on volcano., Christmas became a day of grief and December 31, at which the Queen was Today there are many New Zealanders mourning. represented by the Duke of Edinburgh. with a loved one lost in that tragic Officers at Waiouru camp cancelled An executive commission appointed to Christmas Eve bridge collapse who join Christmas leave. Soldiers on leave near- probe the disaster laid the blame on with the Maoris in calling the spot by who heard of the disaster at Tangiwai snow-capped Mount Ruapehu (2780 Tangiwai — "weeping waters."

DISASTER! — Page 15