NOR'-WEST GALE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20314, 13 August 1931, Page 14

NOR'-WEST GALE.

i —♦— DAMAGE IN COUNTRYj AND CITY. | ! RECORD VELOCITY. ! | RAIN IN MOUNTAINS. •Biding at about 8 a.m., and rapidhincreasing in strength after daylight, the most severe wind of the past two years raked the province yesterday morning from the north-west, damaging property and trees, telephone and i telegraph lines, and seriously inconveniencing traffic in tho City. According to the record taken at the Wigram Aerodrome, the gale reached a velocity of 68 miles an hour shortly before llo'clock. The south-west gale of June l 24th had a maximum velocity of! 65 | miles an hour. ! .Although no serious damage is icporfc- ; ed, tlie wind played many pranka in City and suburbs —window-panes were brokcu, many of the new horse-stalls at the Riccarton racecourse were overturned, and iron roofing at the Sign of the Kiwi and other places was blown from its supports. The gale did a considerablo amount; j of minor damage to the telegraph and. I telephone sj-stems in Canterbury. It apj peared to be at its severest at Waiau, t Cheviot, and Kaikoura, according to I information received by the District Telegraph Engineer (Mr J. C." Fairbairn). The greatest inconvenience to the Department occurred in tho district j between Sockburn and Eolleston, where a number of trees fell across the telegraph wires, putting some of them temporarily out of commission. For some j time the service to Timaru and Dunedin I was affected, but the Department was j able to carry on, one wire being fori tunately intact. The West Coast circuit j was also affected. It was reported that • interruptions had occurred to the lines in the vicinity of Waiau and Kai- | koura. A worse interruption, however, occurred between Kaikoura and the Clarence bridge, repairs not being com ploted there for some hours after the giile had subsided. A number of cases were reported to the Department of in- | ti iTuptions to the telephone system in I the City due to fallen trees. j Plantations Undamaged. '.l"he Superintendent of City T'arks and Reserves (Mr M. J. Barnett) reported that no damage had been done to the City Council's plantations at Burwood or Victoria Park. The only tree blown uown which had been reported to hint was a macrocarpa in River road. None of tho poplars or willows along tho Avon had suffered to any extent worth mentioning. This was probably due to the fact that there was at present no foliage on the poplars, while the willowj were generally young and healthy, most of the old oiios having been removed or pollarded. One effect of the gale was t:> shift some tons of sand at Burwood I'crk, formerly Button's Reserve. The sand was in process of bein;» levelled when the wind struck it, spoil ing the work of days. Pine trees in the Botanic Garden* - cm damaged as a result of branches being blown off them, and near the children's wading pool a branch of a wattle tree was removed by tho force of th'j galo, breaking tho line connecting tlw Magnetic Observatory with the tele*. • phone system. Power Services. No damage was done to the Lake Coleridge system. The Municipal Electricity Department reported that in a few cases poles had been blown down, but no interruption of a serious nature had taken place. There wero one or two interruptions in the tramway service while the gale lasted, but they were slight. No damage was done to the overhead equipment, although near the Riccarton racecourse a tree came down perilously close to the lines. Damage in the City. Part of tho iron roof of the annexe at tho Winter Show was lifted by the wind, and men had to sit on it holding the sheets of iron down until carpenters ai rived to effect repairs. A window 64 square feet in area was blown in at the Tower Shoo Storo at the corner of Lichfield and High streets, while panes of glass were torn from the verandah of Messrs Armstrong and Farr's premises in Victoria street near Bealey avenue. The top of an oyster van on a train from Invercargill to Christchurch was blown off. At 10.45 a.m. a telephone box used by taxi-men at the west side of Latimer square was blown oyer, doing some damage as it fell to the hood of u car parked close by. The telephone wire was snapped and the box itself considerably damaged. Shed Unroofed. ! A particularly fierce gust soon after ! 11 o'clock took the roof cleanly off Mr { T. Smart's stable and truck shed at • Cashmere. The roof, which was of j corrugated iron, was 40 feet long , by j 30 feet wide, and was whirled through the air for nearly 60 yards' before it landed. It came away , very .cleanly, breaking the top timbers which" held it, and left the walls standing as though the shed lijid never been completed, j Passengers in a tram coming into the I City from Spreydon realised the foree I of the gale- when a sudden gust lifted a j swirl of gravel and coarse dust and I spattered the open part of the tram and J the windows with it. In the streets j leading off tho Square, where the wind ! was concentrated as in a funnel, water | was whipped out' of the gutters and splashed across the road. Shopkeepers I in Colombo street suffered when goods ; they were displaying outside their shops j were scattered over the pavements, j The gale made conditions , at. the j Addington Trotting Grounds most unj pleasant. Many hats were swept away. I and the first race was run while the I shutters on the front of the outside totalisator were still down. Tho fraine. of a large glass panel in the outside stand was smashed when'a supporting stay broke, and glass and broken woodwork were scattered about. The wind [ moderated after noon, however, and i once the dust and grit had settled, eon- i ditions were again tolerable. j Lyttelton and Sumner. • A north-westerly gale of considerable violence prevailed at Lyttelton in the latter part of yesterday morning. Little j damage is reported. A sheet of iron was blown from the roof of a shop in London street and--a .piece of mortar, weighing three or four pounds, was blowu from the top of the Post Office, narrowly missing a pedestrian. Severe as it was in tho town the storm was worse in the harbour. At times huge' sheets of water were lifted from the siirface of the sea, and passenger and fishing launches we're compelled to seek shelter. Tho full force of the-nor'-wester was* felt at Sumner, and the gale played havoc with the gardens. From the beachfront the wind carried with it. a great

deal of sand, much to the discomfort of residents on the Esplanade near Scarborough. The protective wall on the beach was subjected to a severe buffeting, and although sand was removed from cither side, appeared to have withstood it very well. On the inner side the wall seems to have suffered most towards the Scarborough tea-rooms, where the water has obviously escaped • underneath the foundation. Opposite the end of Head street, the imprisoned water had formed a miniaturo lagoon, but in this vicinity the removal of sand on tho seaward side did not appear more extensive than usual. Rain in the Country. The leaden dome of the post office building at Ambcrley was ripped off, and tumbled into the. street below, several fences were blown down, and the power was off for a time. The gale was followed by rain, but by 4 p.m. the weather was clear. Similar conditions existed at Cheviot, though little damage was done,. while at Kaikoura tho wind reached its greatest strength lato in the morning. It was followed by rain at .1 p.m., and later in the day tho sky-was heavily overcast, with snow falling in the ranges. The most notable feature was the change from the hot nor'-wester to calm cold conditions later in the afternoon. The gale at Oxford was described as "terrific," and as a result of its heavy intermittent -gusts several windows were broken, while drivers of cars experienced some difficulty. The rising of the creeks showed that there had been I heavy rain in the hills, j Minor damage, in the form of strawstacks and trees blown over, was done.at Dunsandel. The wind was followed by rain and colder, conditions early iu the afternoon. . At S'pringJicJd ;a. .gale. was blowing from 8.30.-a.m.," while the. power was off from the early morning until late in the ..day. One or two trees wero blown down, ; and the wind-was- tho heaviest'for some time.The Waimakariri. At Arthur's' Pass a very strung nor'west -wind" -blew' throughout Tuesday night, and all day yesterday, accom-panied-by heavy rain. It was expected that very little snow would lie left if the wind and rain continued. Heavy rain also fell at Bealey. A galvanised iron roof was, lifted from one of the •buildings.at the Waimakariri -Rivsr Trust's Camp, and was deposited 20 or 30 feet away. Between . noon ' and 7 p.m. yesterday the Waimakariri river rose a foot at'the'Gorge bridge. It was still rising slowly at tho Gorge last evening, but was normal at the conf struction camp iu ' Stewart's -Gully. -Usually ten- ho,lire, elapse , before the rise reported- at the/Gorge ;s= evident at the 1 construction camp. Damage at Ashburton. A severe north-west gale was eiperi- ! enced throughout the Ashburton County I yesterday morning, causing considerable interruption to telephone and electric ! power eervices. The force of the gale j blow trees and branches across the j wires, breaking the whole span it) souic j cases, while in others the poles tarry- s ing the wires were snapped off. A little damage was done to private property. Portion;of an iron shed which was used for storing-quantities of produce in connexion with- Mr -R. J. Ramsey 'a grocery store in Victoria street was blowu down, and its contents exposed to the weather. Sheets of iron were torn from the corner of. - the~building, which even-

tually collapsed under the force of ill# wind. Seven spans of the main telephone wires south were broken at Templeton and direct communication between -Ashburton and Christchurch was cut off for some time. Connexion was obtained through tho Rakaia exchange, however, until some of the direct wires were repaired. Sixteen party lines at Mayfield, one at Rakaia, eight at Ashbur* ton and three each at Methven, Springburn, and Hinds, were put out of order but the Post and Telegraph Depart-, rnent's gangs worked strenuously allday yesterday, resulting in most of the breaks being repaired last evening. A great deal of trouble was encountered by the Ashburton Power Board's repair staff, who were handicapped by the interruption of the public and Board's private telephone systems. Tho damage. was fairly general. Last evening, it was estimated that there were between 30 and 40 power poles down, throughout, the County, the majority being in the districts around the foothills where the gale was most severe. Four s.teel poles at Mayfield and four at Ruapuna were brought down by falling trees and a number were also down i at Highbank. Current was' restored in . most districts at a late hour last even- | "ig--. j At Bangiora. j At Rangiora considerable damage was j done in the track of the wind. On a j farm on the west belt a roof was , car- , ried off a shed and landed in a field beside a man working a tractor. The j men working on the water-tower had an unenviable experience. The four men t were on the top of the tower, about! 80 feet high and during the height of the j gale the tower rocked and swayed, and j owing to the scaffolding being partly j wrecked tho men had some difficulty in { getting down to safety. A glasshouse i in course of erection near Ashley river- i bed was blown down. Mr J. Lowe, a j married man, aged 53, who was endeav- ■ ouring to prop it up, was seriously j hurt through the building falling- on i him. He received injuries to bis chest j ( and was conveyed in the ambulance to_j j the ■■ Christchurch Hospital. j Quite 'a number of buildings were j | partially unroofed and window panes... I were-broken. Fortunately the gale lasted j only about three-quarters of an hour. ! | and" after it had subsided rain fell, for 1 j a short period. 1 J Bain at Mctliven. | N or'-west rain fell at Methven in j I the early hours of Wednesday and 2o [ points were recorded up till 9 a.m. About j ■ 7.30 a.m. a howling nor'-west gale blew. I and :il was. almost impossible, to see across the road for .! tho- clouds of dust. A. number i of electric power line .poles are doiyn, j 12 being reported in all parts of the ! ML llutt. district. I A. strung nor'-west wind has been j blowing at Hinds since Tuesday, ! and the neighbouring country is very j dry, with little sigh of any green feed." The river and creeks are all dry, and | many people (particularly those depend- j ing on rain) are without, water. |"