LIFTED INTO AIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 277, 22 November 1934, Page 8

LIFTED INTO AIR.

BOXES AND WIRE.

CHRISTCHURCH WHIRLWIND.

STRAW lOOFT HIGH.

While three persons were working in a paddock at Cashmere, Christchureh, on Monday afternoon, they were startled by a loud roar, and, looking about them, they saw a whirlwind approaching. Boxes, straw and other litter, and a cod of barbed fencing wire were sweeping through the air. T,'he threes persons made a quick effort to shift all movable property. They were successful, but two of their number, one a woman, were caught in the middle of tho whirlwind and almost dragged from a fence to' which they clung for safety. Two of the persons were Miss M. R. Parker, who grows tomatoes in a paddock on the hillside facing Port Hills Road, and Mr. G. E. Parker, her brother, who grows strawberries in a neighbouring section. They had with them a man whom they employ. The whirlwind started shortly after 3 o'clock in a paddock owned by Mi;. J. Cox, of Bowenvale Avenue. The air had been perfectly calm when the attention of the Parkers was attracted by a loud roar. They saw all the litter in the air, and while Miss Parker rushed to a heavy motor truck standing in the paddock and drove it out of the path of the disturbance, the others removed a horse and cart. Miss Parker tlien returned to her paddock, and was about to look round for anything else that was movable when she was caught in tho middle of the/whirlwind. She grasped a fence but was almost torn away, and tho employee, who went to her assistance, had the same experience. Hugs Clouds of Straw. When the whirlwind had passed from them they saw a huge cloud of straw, lifted from the strawberry paddock, floating 100 ft in the air. Seed boxes were being carried along 40ft high, and a heavy roll of barbed wire was lifted about 10ft and carried from one paddock to another. Some of the straw came to rest in neighbouring paddocks. More of it was scattered along verandahs and porches of houses in Bowendale Avenue, and some of it actually entered the windows and littered the floors of bedrooms and living rooms. The house of Mrs. J. H. Michelle received a particularly large share of the straw. Mr. E. McCarrigan, who lives next door to Mrs. Michelle, had some panes of glass in his glasshouse shattered. Mrs. Michelle also Fountl a hat.in her backyard. After starting in Mr. Cox's paddock, ivhich is well up on the hill, the whirlwind went up the liill slight!}", then swept down towards Port Hills Koad, ind then across towards Bowenvale Yvenue. It blazed a track through Mr. Parker's strawberries and flattened some >f Miss Parker's toma'toes, but did little >tlicr damage. Heavy Rain. People living in Port Hills Road and Jowenvale Avenue were frightened by he roar and by the intensity of the vliirlwind, and they considered they vere fortunate not to have their proicrties damaged. About the same time as the whirlrind people living further omul in Cashmere, towards Valley toad, had what they described as an xtraordinary shower of rain resembling . cloudburst. "It came without any warning and ill urge spots, and with an intensity generally associated with tropical showers,' aid a resident. It did no damage.