HAIL AND WIND

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 15, 19 January 1939, Page 5

HAIL AND WIND

DAMAGE IN SOUTH OTAGO

WIDESPREAD AND SEVERE

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.")

DUNEDIN, This Day.

So* strong was the gale in South Otago that the Crichton railway station building was lifted clean off the platform and now lies in a low gully alongside. Portion of the roof of the Lovell's Flat railway goods shed was lifted and the roof of a building in Milton was forcibly removed. In Balclutha chimneys were blown down. Winter feed will be a great problem for farmers after the depredations made by the gale and thunderstorm on growing crops, both root and grass. In the Clydesdale area one farmer had 23 acres of grass cut before the storm. When it had passed the crop was rotting, with new shoots appearing through the cut stalks. Another had a big area planted with turnips. Hail swept down upon it, smashing its way through the leaves and at times severing them from the plants. This will have the effect of stunting growth to a marked degree. One huge paddock of fescue, which was to have been cut on the day of the storm, was shaken badly and flattened with the force of the wind. At Stony Creek huge rivulets running through root crops have bared the tubers and these will be small, whereas a record crop had been expected. Around the Clydesdale district there will be a dearth of winter feed, and in most other farming districts in the south the same state of affairs will result. _____