LIKE CARDBOARD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 226, 23 September 1932, Page 7

LIKE CARDBOARD.

HOUSES TORN DOWN.

Amazing Tornado Leaves Trail Of Chaotic Ruin. CHURCfI A MASS OF DEBRIS. United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) , i- (deceived 10 a.m.) BRISBANE, this day. A- tornado tore across the outskirts of Gympie, leaving a trail of"chaotie ruin. . The Roman Catholic Church was lifted 10 feet into the air and crashed in a mass of wreckage. Railway trucks, weighing about 20 tons, were swept off the rails, 'and petrol I drums, containing 50 gallons, were carried 40 yards away by the wind in the one-mile district. Several families managed to hurry from their homes as they were torn down like cardboard. The roads throughout the district are strewn with uprooted trees, while'hundreds of sheets of galvanised iron were carried miles away. -The strange vagaries of the storm were demonstrated by the fact that while houses on one side of a street were demolished, those on the other side were unscathed-: A heavy hailstorm, following the tornado ruined the crops. The,damage to houses and shops, etc., is estimated at £10,000.~ All telephone and electric light wires were broken and knotted. Two houses at Carlton Hill were lifted bodily and deposited two chains away. The occupan,ts of one of them suffered severe shocks, and a number of people were treated for injuries suffered by flying debris.