A SEVERE GALE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 42, 17 August 1929, Page 10

A SEVERE GALE

AND MORE TO COME

LITTLE DAMAGE DONE

One of the severest north-westerly gales which Wellington has experienced blew last night and this morning, and from the weather forecast it appears that it is not yet all over. The gale reached a velocity of 68 miles per hour early this morning, but instances of damage which have been noted so far are confined mostly to buildings in course of erection or removal, and fences, sheds, etc., the condition of which was not stable.

People living in exposed positions got little sleep last night, as the wind was very gusty, and some of the buffets caused houses to rock perceptibly. The roar of the gale would have .banished sleep without the heavy thuds as some more vehement gust than usual struck the walls. People coming into town early this morning, when the gale was at its height, had an unpleasant experience. The gusts down streets and gullies were so strong that it was at times difficult to keep one's balance. Considering the strength of the wind, there were surprisingly few instances of damage to property.

SCAFFOLD IN DANGER.

During the height of the gale which was blowing this morning the scaffolding on the nearly-completed D.LO. building was in danger of crashing to the ground, and had it done so many motor-cars would have suffered, and the danger to pedestrians would have been very great. During the past few weeks, as the upper part of the huge structure have been completed, the height of the scaffolding has gradually been lowered, but in most parts now it reaches to the top of the second story. This morning the part on the north sida began to sway ominously in the wind, and for some time was hanging outwards by several feet. Taxi-ariv-ers on the stand below made a hurried departure to safer quarters, but fortunately only one piece of timber came down, and it fell between two cars. At considerable risk one of the workmen engaged on the building went to the top of the timber jvork and made the scaffold secure, after which ropes were attached to other sections of it and passed through windows into the buildjing, where they were lashed. -

At Wellington Boys' College the gymnasium, an old wooden building, was in course of removal to another part of the grounds, and the contractors had not completed the roofing when the gale struck the erection. Part of the iron was torn off the roof.

A house in course of ejection on the eastern side of Island Bay was considerably knocked about by the wind, and the roof on another was partly removed. . •

Karori felt the force of the gale, and sheds and all structures not in good shape show its strength. One of the most spectacular results of the storm is at the Texas Company's, bulk oil stores at Sea View road, Lower Hutt, where a big storage tank in course of erection collapsed. The bottom was in and the sides were up, but the top was not on, and the wind got inside it, for it is nothing like a tank just now, the steel sheeting forming a series of dented triangles. Fortunately nobody was hurt.