ROOF LIFTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 259, 1 November 1929, Page 8

ROOF LIFTED.

CYCLONIC STORM.

NEW LYNN HOME STRUCK.

DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £150

like a grey-white CLOUD."

Damage over a wide area was caused by an C intense storm which swept several districts on the northern shores of the YVaitcmata Harbour last evening. It was particularly severe in the Ri\erhcad, Kunieu and New Lynn districts. In some places torrential rain followed vivid lightning. Terrified by the thought that theii home was about to collapse on top of them like a house of cards, a family living in Craigbank Avenue, Nov/ Lynn, went through a startling experience last evening. A miniature cyclone struck the rear portion of the house, knocked down a brick chimney and lifted the roof so that the rain poured, into the kitchenette, and then died away as suddenly as it had come. No one was injured, but the damage to the house is estimated at £150. It was between a quarter and half past seven that the family of Mr. L. N. Dormer were sitting in the living room of the house, having just finished tea. Air. Dormer himself was in bed in one of the front rooms, having been indisposed for some months. It was raining hard at the time, but there was but little wind. Suddenly, with a roar like thunder, i\ miniature cyclone or whirlwind struck the house, and for a minute the inhabitants were in terror of their lives. There was a crash on the roof as one of the chimneys was tumbled over, and then tin whole roof at the back of the house was lifted to a height of over a foot and rain poured into the kitchenette. A concrete block which formed a cap to one of the verandah pillars crashed on to the verandah. Not knowing what would happen next, the occupants of the house could do nothing. During what seemed to them like an age. the house trembled and groaned, and it appeared certain that the whole structure was about to collapse. Then the noise ceased, and the only sound outside was the pelt of the rain. Actually,' the cyclone came and went in under sjxty seconds, but to those in the house it seemed very much longer.

" teade A Gurgling Sound." After the cliinmey had crashed, Mrs. (r. Stephens, who lives with licr parents, dashed out the back door, expecting to hear the house collapse behind her. "It was unnatural," siie said this morning. "I saw wlujt was like a whitish grey cloud, and it made a gurgling sound as it went." As soon as the cyclone bad passed the occupants made an inspection of tlie damage. ft was found that the roof of .the back porch had been lifted oft' its supports, the roof of the kitchenette was out of place, one chimney was down, and there were a number of cracks in the piaster. There was no damage in the main bedroom near the front of the house, but the wind had sent a heavy shower of soot and ashes though the leadlights above the windows, and on toIhe bed. At t lie bottom of the garden a high acacia hedge had been razed as if by an axe, and an outhouse had been turned over. A motor car that had been standing on four blocks on the windward side of the hedge had "been carried off the blocks, but was not damaged. Socond House Damaged. Minor damage was also suffered by the house next door but one to Mr. L. X. Dormer's home, which is owned by Mr. K. Dormer. Again in this instance the roof of the back porch was lifted and an outhouse overturned. A sheet of corrugated iron was whirled across the roadway and on to the front verandah of the lioi.se opposite, a distance of forty yards. Curiously enough, the residence between those owned by Messrs. L. N. and R. Dormer, who are brothers, was not damaged. Coming from the north, the cyclone apparently swept up the gully near the jSTew Lynn public school and across the vacant section at the rear of Mr. L. N. Dormer's property. It is thought that after striking the first house it slewed off to the left and spent its remaining force on the rear of Mr. R. Dormer's •home. Although no other damage was done in the district, several residents remember hearing what they thought to be a particularly violent squall shortly after seven o'clock.