TREMENDOUS SEAS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 212, 8 September 1941, Page 2

TREMENDOUS SEAS

TARANAKI COAST SWEPT

MOTOR CAMP ENDANGERED

(P-A.) NEW PLYMOUTH. Sunday

One of the fiercest northerly gales in the memory of the oldest residents, swept the north Taranaki coast on Saturday afternoon and night. A tremendous sea was running and at high water the waves reached almost unprecedented heights.

The coast to-day bore unmistakable evidence of the effects of the wind, which was often accompanied by heavy rain. At several places along the New Plymouth foreshore the sea swept over the sandhills, and at Fitzroy made a breach that endangered the motor camp behind until the tide receded. The Old Boys' Surf Club clubhouse was partly undermined, one pile being swept away and another left without support.

A number of concrete blocks stacked on the breakwater as protection from the wind were tossed from their places and it is believed some may have been swept off into the sea. No serious damage was done to the port, but the seas swept right round the pavilion on Ngamotu Beach.

The railway station yards were for a time under water as waves dashed over the protecting wall. Part of the New Plymouth municipal baths occupied by the caretaker, Mr. E. H. Meuli, was flooded to a depth of more than a foot and was evacuated by the caretaker and his family, who had to wade through waves sweeping over the roadway.