Gusts Up To 85 m.p.h. Hit Wellington

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31983, 9 May 1969, Page 1

Gusts Up To 85 m.p.h. Hit Wellington

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 8. A gale with gusts up to 85 miles an hour pounded Wellington Harbour today, completely disrupting transport services and battering coastal suburbs.

In spite of the savagery of the storm, Wellington’s Civil Defence organisation had no alerts, said its leader, Mr C. D. Fraser. The temperature dropped to 46deg. about mid-morning, when the gale reached its peak with a gust of 85 m.p.h. For the remainder of the day the temperature was seldom above 48deg. Sheets of wind-driven foam sprayed over trains running between Wellington and

Petone, until at 9.20 a.m. the line was closed and the trains 1 replaced with buses. Rail services were back to normal at 1 7 p.m. Wellington Airport was i able to handle only one N.A.C. flight during the day —an Auckland - Wellington -: Christchurch Boeing flight which arrived in mid-after-noon. Some flights were diverted to Paraparaumu, but even there the gales and crosswinds made flying marginal. Passengers were taken to Auckland by train tonight; others scheduled for flights to Palmerston North and Napier went by bus. In Petone and the Eastbourne area the sea spilled on to roads, blocking them with foam and debris. 7 The waves threatened to tear away a new pipeline under construction from the Shell installation at Seaview to the Point Howard Oil Wharf. Oil company staff braved the driving spray and stones to lash the pipe to heavier fuel lines which were not disturbed. Automobile Association patrols closed the road from Lower Hutt to Eastbourne to all cars when it became too dangerous during the morn1 ing. ■ ■ The Petone borough engineer (Mr J. Parnham) said no property damage had been rei ported, but there would be a lot of cleaning up. “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The sea wall might as well not have been there.” Winds of up to 100 miles an hour at sea made entry into Wellington harbour tricky for three Nationalist Chinese naval ships today.

Many yacht owners had a battle to save their craft. In Carterton, gales estimated by the Carterton school headmaster (Mr J. H. Fergusson) about 85 miles an hour, lifted sheets of iron and lengths of four-by-two timber from the roof of the school at 9 am.

The Wellington Education Board gave approval to close the school and parents collected children at midday. Post Office linemen battled the wind to repair toll and other telephone qrcuits broken during the storm at Pirinoa and other Wairarapa districts. Hundreds of callers swamped the Municipal Electricity Department in Wellington during the day as fuses

blew and power connections were lost in the storm. A Transport Ministry spokesman said the Air Force had been alerted in case it was required to help clear traffic disruptions resulting from the closing of Wellington Harbour and Airport. Intending passengers out of Wellington for the Cook Strait ferry were being accommodated in a train at Wellington Railway Station. Women and children had been given sleeping compartments.

An extra carriage would be attached to the Auckland-to-Wellington Limited. If inquiries from travellers indicated that additional railway capacity was necessary, an extra train to Auckland would run.