TOWN FLOODED BY TIDE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21245, 17 August 1934, Page 13

TOWN FLOODED BY TIDE

♦ • i WATER BURSTS THROUGH j EMBANKMENT j HUNDREDS HOMELESS IX SOUTH AUSTRALIA ic.-'m:r> rr.z:is v.i electric TELEGEAIU—COI'YIUGUT.I (Received August 16, 5.5 p.m.) ADELAIDE, August 16. I Two babies were drowned, at least > 1000 people left homeless, and dam-1 age amounting to many thousands of i pounds caused by tidal waters I which swept into Port Pirie when the embankment gave way and inundated the greater part of the township. The residential area of Ellendale suffered most severely. Scarcely a I house remains occupied, and the j whole area is a vast sheet of water. llt is miraculous that the loss of j life was not greater when the tidal (waters, banked up by a terrific gale, burst through the embankment. Those people in Ellendale who were not rescued immediately were forced to snend the night on the house-tops. The confusion and panic were increased by the failure of the electric light supply. Water in some places almost reached the tops of doorways. From one end of the state to the other, but particularly in the western sections, houses were wrecked, fence flattened, and trees uprooted. The babies drowned were Colin Burghin, aged five months, and j j Kevin Baverstock, aged three j j months. They were swept from the I arms of their parents while being: ! carried through the swollen waters. I j Mrs Baverstock, awakened by the i i noise of the flood waters, seized her j jbaby and escaped through a win-j idow. She managed to reach the j ! gateway, with water up to her arm- j i pits. There she met the full force iof the torrent surging clown the > street and shs lost her balance. The baby was swept away.

GALES IN OTHER STATES t

I EXTENSIVE DAMAGE | 1)1 ST CLOPDS EXPECTED TO I ; REACH N.Z. | I j : ! j SYDNEY, August 16. ! i Freakish coloured lightning, red j i ruin, heavy hail, and cyclonic winds j J were features of a remarkable storm I ' which affected New South Wales, \ : Queensland, and Victoria tester-! 'day. ' _ ! | Extensive damage was caused in j I the inland districts of New South ] Wales. Trees and telephone poles : were uprooted, verandas wrecked, land houses unroofed by the storm, I j which swept through the Dunedoo, j Berrigan. and Wellington townships, i Torrential rain has fallen 'in the j Murrumbidgoc river district, and ;settlers arc making preparations to i withstand Hoods. Many persons have i already left their homes at Gunidagai, Wagga, Narandera. and I other towns on the river. i A Brisbane message states that j central and southern Queensland is ! thickly enveloped in dust. The j Government meteorologist believes! i thiit winds will blow the dust at ai | high altitude as far as New Zealand, j j A Melbourne message states that ! ) fierce gales, accompanied by heavy! seas, are seriously disorganising J I shipping. The Snowy river at Or- j .host is rising rapidly. Police are j ready with boats. j

DESERT DUST IN THEj ATMOSPHERE ! i

RED RAIN A COMMON PHENOMENON Nu one outside the meteorological office at Wellington would be likely lo have sufficient information at his disposal to form any idea as to when and if such a storm as that ; ! referred to in the cablegram from j Sydney , was likely to aifect New : Zealand, said Mr 11. F. Baird, of ' the staff of the Christchurch Magnetic Observatory, when asked to ' comment on the extraordinary weather reported from Australia. It ' was improbable, however, that it '. could affect New Zealand earlier than 24 hours alter the happening > in Australia. | "We have had a fairly long spell ; of low barometric pressure and unreasonably good weather, and it - i seems almost certain that in the ! normal course of events southerly j H weather must follow, with accom-j * | panying cold conditions," continued ! ; ; Mr Baird. "That again is a question for pronouncement by the meteorological office in Wellington." The red rain referred to in the Australian message was cjuite a common phenomenon, he said. There had been many cases of dust from Australia being carried across the Tasman sea and deposited in the form of red rain in New Zealand. Evidence was most frequently found in the mountain ranges, where such deposits resulted in the coloration of the snow. The most remarkable case known was the "blood rain" that fell in parts of Europe some years ago. The color--1 ation in this case was traced to -' dust particles picked up in Africa. 1 Wherever there were lugh winds t and sufficiently turbulent conditions in desert countries it was always i likely that dust particles might be 5 picked up and carried long ciis- ; tances in the upper atmosphere, j The direction of weather Systems, 1 explained Mr Baird, was dependent " on the direction of lines of equal barometric pressure. In the famij liar type of weather distribution I known as a westerly depression these lines of equal pressure cxi tended from Australia to Nov Zeaj land, with a slight curvature to the 1 northward. The winds blew at a < small angle to these lines, so that " they were restricted very nearly to - a wtsterly direction. In the normal 2 process, therefore, weather systems moved from Australia to New Zealand. If the dust from Australia reached New Zealand it would probably become visible to obser- .' I vers at" Arthurs Pass and other -(mountainous districts in the coloration of the snow.