AN EIGHTY-MILE GALE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 108, 10 May 1933, Page 11

AN EIGHTY-MILE GALE

DAMAGE IN CHRISTCHURCH

ACCIDENT TO FERRY TRAIN

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) .. CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A terrific southerly gale, estimated at eighty miles per hour, did considerable damage in and around the city last night.'. It blew a section from the roof of the guard's van of the- returning ferry boat express, and caused it to foul the overhead equipment, so that ■' the Christchurch-Lyttcltoa railway service was seriously: dislocated. . There were- many exciting incidents in the work- of the repair gang. Aided by a fitful light from lanterns and torches, the railway linesman, working at the head of a swaying ladder, held in position by the efforts of six men, freed the overhead electric power line of the steamer, train. It was difficult and dangerous work, which, with other complications, took two hours to* eomplote. In the meanwhile the train from Lyttelton was held up between Heathcote and Woolston.. Later in the evening frequent power failures occurred in the city. ■ Many fences were blown down. The , gale also damaged boats in the harbour. .The' galo was terrific at 9 o'clock, and the carriages rocked until the passengers ands crew thought the train would be blown from the rails, .Some men were blown from the track. On .the Woolstbii station one, passenger, who was waiting, said he had been blown across the lines twice when trying to reach the signal-box in order to find'out when the, train was due. As the train approached ho had to hold on to the railing besido the platform to avoid being blown. under the wheels. The signalman on duty in the signalbox at Woolston feared that the- tall two-storeyed building would be blown over. Between 9 and. 10 o'clock the * box swayed alarmingly. At times the Tear of the "building was lifted inches from the foundations, and tilted alarmingly over the-track.