A WHIRLWIND.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 303, 22 December 1926, Page 12

A WHIRLWIND.

A WAIKATO VISITATION. (By Telegraph.—Special to " Star.") HAMILTON, this day. A whirlwind, which seemed to come from the direction of Eureka, swept through Newstead and Matangi yesterday, eventually spending itself in" a terrific downpour of rain near Tamahere. It wrought considerable damage in its mad race across the country, completely destroying a valuable haystack belonging to Mr. Samuel Lye, liprooting trees, and breaking others" off at the trunk, and dislocating the telephone and power services. As a result of the latter occurrence, the lines of a fence liecame charged,"but luckily a power board employee was handy, and at once cut the wires, so that danger froiii this quarter was averted. Cows on the nearby farms were being driven in for milking when the storm came, and this stampeded several herds, who were only got together with some difficulty. In the Hoeka Stream several trees were snapped off near the roots and strewn about. For some time the power was cut off, and the milkers had to return to the old-time method of hand milking for a time. It may be mentioned, that the roar of the whirlwind was terrific, while its force can be gathered from the fact that iron from Mr. Lye's haystack was carried over a mile away. Strangely enough, not the slightest trace of the storm was felt at Hamilton, only five miles away.