Show garden devastated

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 1

Show garden devastated

A brief but furious hail storm wreaked havoc in and around Rangiora yesterday afternoon on its way across North Canterbury. Hailstones to 25mm in diameter were reported.

The central business area of Rangiora was given a dense pelting by marble-sized hailstones. The worst of the storm seemed to cut through in a narrow swathe causing severe damage to. some properties, while others nearby were relatively unharmed. The show garden of Mr and Mrs E. J. Hamilton, 3 Scotswood Place, Rangiora, was devastated. The garden, third in the open section of a recent Rangiora garden competition was damaged beyond recognition. Mrs Hammon said that 100 visitors had seen the garden already and many more had arranged to

see it. Hailstones punched “like machine-gun bullets” through the corrugated plastic roofing of the Hamiltons’ sunroom, leaving the linoleumcovered floor awash, and through the roof of their detached garden shade house and the plastic spouting round the house.

The plastic covering of several big fruit and vegetable growing houses of Mr M. Journeaux, of the Costessy, Market Gardens, Ivory Street, Rangiora, were stripped to shreds. The hail punched through the skylight of the Wrightson-NMA store and stock had to be moved.

Mr R. H. Moore, of Marshmans Road, Sefton, said he had never known anything like it. Several substantial pine trees were snapped off about 3m above the ground,

the 6m to 9m tops being hurled up to 40 metres. One crashed across his drive; three crashed on to his back lawn; and a large bluegum crashed over his fowlhouse. A substantial timber dog kennel disintegrated in the wind.

Mr lan Ford, of Marshmans Road, Sefton, said a whirlwind hit his property from the south-west before moving in the direction of Mr Moore’s property. The wind snapped tops off poplars and pines on his boundary and then uprooted a big bluegum tree, which smashed a shed and damaged an oil storage tank. Other nearby buildings were not harmed by the wind.

The wind came from two angles — the south-east and the south-west, at the same time and seemed to meet at his property; everything went

up in the air, said Mr Moore. Some hailstones “the size of golf balls” fell in the accompanying storm. Some fruit crops in the district will be affected by the storm but the extent of the damage will probably not be known for a day or two.

Some fruit would be marked, said one orchardist. The damage from the larger hailstones would be apparent immediately but it would take some time for any damage from the smaller hailstones to show. The north-west sector of Rangiora was without electricity for about 15 minutes last evening. The cut may have been an aftermath of the hailstorm. Electricity was arcing across a high-voltage pole switch at the comer of Seddon Street and Ashgrove Street.