SHARP WHIRLWIND

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 111, 4 February 1935, Page 10

SHARP WHIRLWIND

Damage on Farms Near Cambridge FOLLOWED BY DELUGE Terrifying and Unusual Experience BRANCHES TORN OFF TREES Dominion Special Service. Auckland, February 3. An area of farm land in the vicinity of the Karapiro dairy factory, about six miles south of Cambridge, was •struck by a cyclonic disturbance of exceptional severity at 3 o’clock on Saturday afternoon. Considerable damage was done to farms. ( Peals of thunder and flashes of lightning gave warning of the coming storm. Heavy black clouds gathered and terrific wind followed and became centred in the form of a whirlwind in Whitehall Road Valley. Mr, F. P. Ganley was in the fields when the whirlwind approached. He saw a haystack shaken by the force of the wind and its top lifted and scattered.about the paddock. Mr. Ganley tried to make his way towards the stack, but be was blown backwards. The occupants of Mr. J. W. Ganley’s house were terror-stricken, and expect‘ed the building to collapse. The walls and roof of the garage were torn off, and the iron was carried a chain away. Branches of a large willow tree were torn off, and on the opposite side of the road branches of a large white wattle tree near Mr. T. A. Frost’s home were broken off. The branches weighed many tons, and one crashed on to the washhouse, completely wrecking the building. Another branch scraped the side of the dwelling, but did no damage. Three Inches of Rain in Hour. A large pinus insignis tree on the farm was broken off at the base, and a dozen other trees had their branches torn off. Sheet iron was wrenched from haystacks in the neighbouring farms, and was carried some distance, while the implement shed on Mr. J. Montgomery’s farm was blown to pieces. The wind blew with hurricane force for half an hour, and then rain fell in torrents. The deluge was so heavy that it. was impossible to see more than, a dozen paces ahead. Hail as large as chestnuts accompanied the rain, and made a terrifying noise on the roofs of houses. ■ There were many narrow escapes from injuries, but no stock was lost. Elderly settlers were at a- loss for words to describe the extremely extraordinary phenomenon through which they had passed, but said the atmosphere was uncanny, and they had never experienced anything like it before. It is estimated that over three inches of rain fell within an hour.