TENTS SWEPT AWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1932, Page 19

TENTS SWEPT AWAY.

KBMET CAMPS AT AKA AKA. HAVOC CAUSED BY GALE, A fierce south-westerly gale which swept over the relief camps at Aka Aka and Maioro Beach yesterday left a trail of desolation in its wake. Tents, beddine and clothes belonging to the men were swept away with the force of the gale. Some of the tents were carried away while the men slept. Only three tents out of 21 were left standing at Aka Aka No. 2 camp, and only three out of twelve at Maioro C Heavy rain equalls with intermittent hail accompanied the .gale, and. the men were wet through before they realised what ha 4 happened. Most of the dam-a-us was done at Aka Aka camp The gale broke shortly after six o clock. Tents were lifted bodily, with wallboards, poles and pegs. Some were carried 30 feet away, and were ripped to shreds. Tent poles snapped. There was no time for the 44 men in the camp, to secure their belonging!?, which littered nearby fields. Ihe wen accepted their bad luck philosophically. They spent last night in Aka Aka Hall and were given beds from the wrecked camp. The cooking tent was -one ol the few that withstood the gale. Fierce wind early in the morning roused the men in the Maioro Beach camp, and efforts were made to reinforce guy ropes. So great was the force of thS gale that the ropes and poles were torn from the hands of the men There was not as much damage there iw there was at Aka Aka. Sixteen men had been transferred from Aka Aka to Maioro Beach or. Tuesday afternoon, and the new ate was intended as a winter camp, lbs camp was badly situated, for the reason that it faced the west, the irf> from which the prevailing wind Mot s. When the gale was at its wont yesterday the wind acrried with showers of sand from nearby dunes. The sand got into the food, clothes and »edding. The men believe that a much better site could have been chosen where they would not have been troubled with the sand nuisance.