GALES BATTER WELLINGTON

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33520, 29 April 1974, Page 1

GALES BATTER WELLINGTON

(Neu> Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, April 28.

Gales and rain in Wellington at the week-end were the most devastating since the Wahine storm in 1968.

The storm injured five persons, left cars crushed by fallen trees, tumbled houses down hillsides and caused widespread damage to power and telephone

services.

But by tonight Saturday’s-tr 85 m.p.h. gales had fallen n away to steady 34 m.p.h. tc winds and repair gangs which, had toiled since Saturday e ,tl

morning had restored life to normal for most Welling-! :onians. The cost of the storm is! sxpected to be hundreds of! thousands of dollars.

tne city engineer, Mr -a. D. Martin, tonight advised ; people who had suffered 'damage to consult their own [ insurance companies who ! would then take the matter 'up with the Earthquake and War Damage Commission. A Porirua woman was cut on the face when she was hit by a flying window frame blown in by the wind. The other casualties were all blown over. One suffered a fractured shoulder. All were treated and discharged by the Wellington Hospital casualty department. ' Cars crushed Two cars were crushed by some of the many trees felled by the wind. A 130 ft tree crashed to the ground in Tyne Street, Island Bay, on Saturday afternoon, crushing a car. That night an old macrocarpa blew down in Truscott Place. Johnsonville. It brought down power lines and then crushed a car belonging to Mr G. Auten, of; Palmerston North. Mr Auten was the toastmaster at a wedding reception being held in a nearbyhouse. The bridegroom, Mr G. Halverson, of Titahi Bay, is a fireman and several of his colleagues were at the reception. They dealt with the fallen lines. But the tree and the: crushed car put a damper on the reception, said the bride’s; brother, Mr D. McDonald.; “Everyone went home except j Gerald Auten. He had to wait until today for a lift.” I

Two houses slipped down hillsides after rain gouged out their foundations. Mr M. Stainton was working in the basement of nis Phmmerton house when he

heard a rumbling noise and noticed the hillside above his o house starting to slip. He ;- went next door to summon [help but by then it was too s late. The house had twisted fiaround and slipped several [feet. “It’s a demolition job now d'l should think,” he said tod day. □ • At Eastbourne a newly □ built house was pushed off its r'foundations by a landslide, d The slip, which was behind the house, started about a ( fortnight ago during heavy 11 rain and worsened during the e [v eek-end storm. e: Roofs damaged d■ . , Less spectacular slips occurred almost everywhere in ' the Wellington region. Scores ’ of homes suffered some form ’ of roofing damage. The Lyall Bay Service Station had its forecourt roof picked up by the wind and / dumped on the main buildsi ing’s roof. t' The incident sent power--lines to the ground in a shower of flashing sparks. ’ In Brougham Street a piece lof roofing iron blown off a -[roof, flew though a window t in the adjacent Rutland Flats tiand was stopped from entersung a room only by a Venetian blind. f The high winds hampered the Railways Department’s . attempts to communicate . with the Aramoana. An ultrar high frequency dish-aerial at ■ Kaiwharawhara was twisted , around its mast by the wind. F Since the aerial was a direc- > tional one it was out of action for much of the Aramoana , emergency. i Radio messages to the ship i were relayed through other ;; vessels. In Maungaraki a caravan was flipped on its top and hurled down a bank by wind 'on Saturday afternoon.