Gale buffets Dunedin

Press, 10 July 1987, Page 7

Gale buffets Dunedin

PA Dunedin Winds of up to 167km/h buffeted Dunedin yesterday, cutting power to several areas and shattering windows throughout the city.

A strong gust tore part of the roof from a house in Waverley about midday.

Assistant Commander D. Roper, of the Fire Service, said sheets of corrugated iron flew 50 to 60 metres through the air into neighbouring properties.

Power and telephone lines were also damaged by flying debris. The strongest gust was recorded at 167km/h at Taiaroa Head at 2.25 p.m.

At Dunedin Airport

wind speeds reached 117km/h at 12.50 p.m. and 91km/h gusts were recorded in the city at 11.30 a.m.

Passers-by had to chase brass goods when a city shop had two large plateglass windows blown out before midday. The police and Dunedin City council parking enforcement officers blocked off part of the footpath outside Briscoes in Great King Street for some time as a window next to the broken one seemed set to shatter as well.

Shattering windows, however, paled into insignificance after a fierce wind gust blew down the brick wall of a garage in Pine Hill. The owner said he was

eating lunch when he saw a piece of corrugated iron fly past the window. Outside he found what used to be a solid brick wall reduced to a pile of rubble in his vegetable garden.

Residents in Berwick, Portobello, Taiaroa Head, Halfway Bush and Cape Saunders were without power for about an hour after gusts put lines out of action. The Dunedin Fire Service received calls from throughout the city and firemen were still busy at nightfall trying to cover a badly damaged roof on a Waverley house.

Some roads were closed because of fallen trees but all roads were expected to be reopened this morning.