STRUCK BY WHIRLWIND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 200, 24 August 1928, Page 8

STRUCK BY WHIRLWIND.

SHED CRASHES INTO HOUSE.

ELECTRIC WIRES TORN DOWN

TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE. OCCUPANTS ESCAPE INJURY. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) NEW PLYMOUTH, this day. A whirlwind swept across New Plymouth about 9.30 last night. It unroofed four shops which were in the course of erection in Devon Street East, and caused considerable damage to the dwelling of Mrs. Wm. Bocock in Molesworth Street. The whirlwind was of the "twister" type, which strikes this part of the coast occasionally. The evening was very rough and stormy, and torrential rain was accompanied by vivid lightning and heavy thunder. The whirlwind evidently originated offshore, and, sweeping inwards, it struck an open shed in which the Sash and Door Company had logs stacked. It took the roof off the shed, and lifting the rafters too, hurled them across the road, where they struck the front of Mrs. Bocock's dwelling. The electric power and telegraph lines were torn down, and rooms were plunged into darkness. House Suddenly Trembled. Mrs. Bocock and her daughter and two grandchildren, and a son from Hamilton (a schoolmaster) wAr? in the house at the time. They had a terrifying experience. The house suddenly trembled with the shock, and the front windows were burst and shattered. The broken glass flew everywhere, and a large piece struck Mr. Bocock on the back of his neck, but did not cause any injury, as the flat surface caught him. •" Judging from the appearance of the home this morning, it is surprising the occupants escaped without injury. Miss Bocock, who was passing along the hall when the house was struck, said the front seemed to lift right up and then sink back, trembling, and the whole place wa« flooded with peculiar light, which they watch jd pass away over the town. Later the broken electric wires were seen dancing about in a shower of sparks, and as the telephone wires were als ■ Unvn the only means of communicati vith the borough electricity depart mv... was by personal messenger.

Sheets of iron and other building wreckage were strewn all over the neighbourhood. Eight Shops Unroofed. A block of eight shops being built by Boon Bros, for Mr. G. Fair, of Feilding, was stripped of about 50ft of roofing, which was found crumpled up like brown paper. The builders believed the roofing was sucked off by the force of the wind

from above, and not torn off by the wind getting under the roof.