GALE OF CYCLONIC FORCE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3162, 14 August 1917, Page 4

GALE OF CYCLONIC FORCE

CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE DONE. During- Sunday night and yesterday Wellington wne visited by one of the most violent gales experiences! for n long ti'fiio -past. There wa? trouble in. tho air on Saturday, and by Sunday moi-ning tho city was canopied by a i>ull of clouds, which, under the peculiur atmospheric conditions, assumed a. dull yollow tinge Iliat looked extremely ugly. Tho wind )>lew hard from tho north-west all day Sunday, and during tho flight it piped up, until it howled with cyclonic tee across tTio harbour and the city. Good, Btauncii", solidly-built houses shivered and locked under the terrilic blasts, and anything flint was lying loose in an exposed position was hurled this way and that by the force of tho wind. There was not a great deal of l'ain, but .when a. shower did fall tho rain, was hurled with such might; that it penetrated many places considered water-tight, and robbed some weiither-proof houses of their reputation. The average velocity for the night was only given by the Meteorological Depaitment as thirty-three miles, but the maximum speed is given at 66 miles an hour, which i 3 nothing extraordinary, as bid Wows go. ' „ . , Suffice it that the cyclone was sufficient to uproot trees, break off stout branches from'pines, break windows which had Btood up to many an ordinary gale, lay fenoes, and play mischief with many a Kvrden. In.'the city, Kirkcaldie and Stnins's establishment suffered considerably. An Bft. by 10ft. plate-glass show-, window on Lambton Quay -was broken, and on the Johnston Street side of the firm's premises a big sign-board was blown against one of the largest windows in the establishment. It hit ,he transom bar, with the result that the window was eo strained that the plateglnss (three-eighths of an inch thick) was badly cracked above and below the metal I transom bar. The difficulty at present is that panes of gloss of the sizo needed are unobtainable in AVellington. The effect of. tho gale was such that nont but highly essential work could be attempted on tho waterfront yesterday. Tiic gale lashod the surface of tho harbour into a seething cauldron, and the spume that was whipped off tho wavetops was carried a great distance inland. The sals practically tied HP all but the linic-tablo boats. The galo commenced to abate at about 11 a.m., ami a little after 1 p-.m. the sun shot through the grey dome, and the packed clouds rolled nwriy, to exposo glimpses of blue for an hour or f-o. . ' Tlie blow was certainly the most violent experienced locally for a long time, and was all the more noticeable as it vns • unheralded.. The Government TTVteoroloFrist's orognosHeation on Saturday was "for "freshening northerlies," which hardly conveyed the promise of *nc*> a Wow us was experienced here on Snnuay night aud yesterday morning.