"DUST DEVIL" AND WHIRUNB.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 996, 10 December 1910, Page 4

"DUST DEVIL" AND WHIRUNB.

UNCANNY SCENES. . (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.! Palmerston, December 9. A whirlwind and "dust devil" oft exceptional size and force struck the Terrace End .portion of Palmerston about half-past eleven this morning. It drew hundreds of people from their business occupations, arid there was a good deal of very real whilst) it lasted. • It started, it is believed, somewhere towards the northern portion of Hokowhitu, and travelled northwards. At Mr. W. Pittam's stables, in Church Street East, the iron roof was torn. off, lifted 10 or 20 feet into the air, carried a : couple of hundred yards, and deposited into a paddock. The half-section of a strongly-built fence in the whirlwind's path was levelled to the ground, the posts being torn up, and the wire wrenched from the staples. It then travelled across the road to a houso occupied by Mrs. Kelly and family. It struck the verandah, and almost completely demolished it, the iron and verandah posts being left m a confused heap on the floor. > Its effort .there spent itself, and the disturbance. , passed on without doing any further damage. , .. A teacher at the Terrace End School saw the "monster" approaching the. school, and, thinking it would be to get the children out in case the building was wrecked, gave warning, and the pupils simply poured out of the school, somewhat of a'panic occur--ring. Thoso wh<\ came m contact wiOi the • cyclone state that it had a rather terrifying effect. The. noise was imposing, and the cyclone gathered such, unconsidered trifles as the verandahtop of a stable, sheets of iron, kerosene tins, pieces of wood, and mbbish ot i even' description. Nervous people who happened to be in the track of the whirlwind had a most unpleasant experience for a short space. 4. thunderstorm was also proceeding at-the time, and vast billows of inky, clouds lay on the • horizon at a low level. Oil reaching theso clouds the impact of the whirlwind gave them a> snake-like appearance, and the cork* screw movement presented a most un-< canny look. After some minutes the wind appeared to spend itself , in the clouds, emptying-out what looked like great quantities of ashes, ■ but what would rcallv be the rubbish which it had gathered in its peregrinations in almost a half-circle around the eastern portion of the town. At Stoney Creek a tremendous fall of * hailstones took, place, covering tho ground screral, inches deep, and considerable damago was done to gardens and orchards. The hailstorm' was followed by very heavy rain.