WORST STORM IN WGTN MEMORY

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31652, 11 April 1968, Page 22

WORST STORM IN WGTN MEMORY

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, April 10. The worst storm in Wellington’s history struck the city early this morning. It caused the death of a small girl, severely injured several persons, and caused property damage amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Throughout the Wellington area roofs were torn from houses, power and telephone lines were wrecked. Rail and road travel was disrupted. The hardest hit were the Wellington suburbs of Kingston and Island Bay.

At least six houses there were almost completely wrecked and the roofs were lifted from about 50 others. Fifty-six people were evacuated from the area. Most were able to find accommodation although about six are being cared for by the Salvation Army. Wellington Hospital reported that 70 people had been treated for injuries. There have been at least 400 claims to the Earthquake and War Damage Commission by home owners in the Wellington area.

A spokesman for the Weather Office said today that the heavy storm had come

from the clash of a tropical and an Antarctic storm. However, conditions tomorrow were expected to be moderate with lighter winds and showers.

The storm, which brought winds gusting at up to 123 miles an hour, left more than 150 stranded cars in Wellington.

Three ambulances hurrying to emergencies in the Kingstor area at the height of the storm were overturned.

An Army truck on a similar mission also came to grief and countless shop windows were broken.

There were thousands of instances of damage. A state of civil emergency was declared at Upper Hutt Rintoul Street and other streets round Athletic Park in Wellington were strewn with debris. Sheets of corrugated iron were wrapped round telephone and power poles. Trees were uprooted, and one whole side of the park grandstand was ripped off. The Wellington to Auckland express ran, but some rail delays were expected tonight Storm - damaged electrical sub-stations throughout Wellington put pll City Council trolly buses off the streets for most of the day. Property damage running into hundreds of thousands of dollars is being tallied in Wanganui in the wake of this morning’s 90 m.p.h. hurricane —the fiercest storm to flay

Wanganui city in living memory.

For five frenzied hours from 4 a.m. the southerly ripped and tugged at buildings and gardens. Roofing iron peeled off exposed homes and high structures.

Fences twisted like cardboard, trees toppled and TV aerials pulled away by the hundreds.

Gisborne Damage Gisborne early this morning shuddered in the grip of the fiercest gale in living memory as 87 m.p.h. winds caused serious damage at the Cook Hospital, causing patients to be evacuated from one ward.

The wind tore the roofs off homes, disrupted power supplies and telephone communications, ripped out countless trees, blocked many roads, shattered windows in some homes and shops, and cut all telephone communications in and out of Gisborne. Gisborne orchards received a battering in last night’s gale. The fruit lost is reported to total between 17,000 and 18,000 bushels, most of it apples. The total loss to growers could be as much as $30,000, though negotiations were under way to see if some of the fruit could be salvaged. Many young trees have been pushed right over. Export Apples

More than a quarter of a million bushels of apples—the bulk of them Granny Smith variety, the biggest earners on tile export market from this district—were shaken from trees in last night’s storm in the Hastings district. The loss is claimed to be a disaster to the industry and the economy. Whakatane was mopping up this morning in the path of the winds, which caused thousands of pounds of damage to homes, shops, offices and property. Roofs were tom off at least a dozen homes. Chimneys collapsed, television aerials on an estimated 200 houses were bent to a crazy angle. Windows were smashed by the force of the winds. In the main business area, plate-glass windows on five buildings were scattered across the street.