WIND AND RAIN LASH N.I.

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31116, 20 July 1966, Page 1

WIND AND RAIN LASH N.I.

Roads Blocked, Lines Down

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 19. Gales accompanied by heavy rain lashed many parts of the central North Island today, disrupting elec* trie power and telephone communications and causing blocked roads.

A blizzard raged across the National Park and snow closed the Desert road.

Police and Ministry of Works men said it was the worst storm they had experienced in the central area for some time. x Air services were dislocated and some airports were closed. Shipping was affected, cargo loading was delayed and the new ferry Aranui lost some paint when she was pushed by high winds against the wharf at Picton.

Farmers were warned to move stock to higher ground during the day.

People were stranded in lodges on Mount Ruapehu, cars were blown off the road in the central island, State highways were closed and buildings 'in coastal Taranaki

and the Northern King Country were damaged when gales and icy temperatures struck a wide area. The chief ranger of the Tongariro National Park (Mr J. W. Mazey) said people were in lodges at the Top o’ the Bruce, Mount Ruapehu, and could not get down to the Chateau. The blizzard had started at daylight, he said. Cars Blown A 70-80 mile-an-hour blizzard was raging at the Chateau tonight and an Automobile Association spokesman at New Plymouth reported that two cars had been blown off the road linking the Chateau with State Highway 47, Rangipo-National Park. More than 18 inches of snow forced drivers to turn back from State Highway No. 1, between Turangi and Waiouru—the Desert road—and snow also blocked State Highway 41, TokaanuTaumarunui. Power and telegraph poles were blown down on State highway 47 and other telephone communications to and from Turangi were also severely disrupted. In coastal Taranaki, the Rahotu police said tonight it was the worst storm experienced for six years.

One Rahotu resident, Mr G. D. Dawson, jun., had a chimney blown off his farmhouse and about 15 minutes later a 6ft square window was blown out of his engineering workshop. Shed Shifted At Te Kuiti a woolshed was shifted from its foundations and roofs were blown off garages and a house. Constable B. Mills, of Te Kuiti, said the roof of his garage had been lifted by the wind and thrown 30 to 40 yards on to a vacant section. As it lifted, the roof tumbled one brick wall of the garage to the ground, leaving it a wreck, he said. Near-blizzard conditions also prevailed at the north Mouit Egmont chalet when a five-man team of New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation technicians tried to battle their way to the television translator access road with a heavy trailer. Snow was falling down to the entrance to the park—about 1000 feet—and drifts of more than a foot were built up around the chalet. The trailer was eventually hauled to the site by a bulldozer, which had to be left there.