GREAT HAILSTORM

Evening Star, Issue 20252, 13 August 1929, Page 4

GREAT HAILSTORM

HAVOC AT DURBAN STREETS SIN DEEP IN ICE. Durban was busy on June 22 ou the. melancholy task" of estimating the enormous amount of damage done by the previous night’s hailstorm, the most violent in the history of tho town. 'The damage to motor cars alone is put at £IO,OOO. while several hotels will have to spend as much as £2,000 in replacing furnishings mined by rain and rooks smashed in by bail. Starting at G o’clock hail as heavy ns cricket halls rained furiously on the town for half an hour. The tiled roots of many commercial and residential buildings in tho path of the storm cracked under the fierce bombardment, and the occupants were flooded nut. So many windows and roofs wore smashed that it took weeks to 'repair the damage. In West street, Durban’s biggest stores bore the full brunt ot the visitation. The lumps of _ hail knocked holes in windows and fanlights and rain flooded the basement, causing enormous damage, LIKE THUNDER OF SURF.

The storm broke just as business people were returning home. Little warning was given. Except for a lew flashes of lightning and the rumbling of distant tbunder'everyfcliing was normal until suddenly (here arose a sound like heavy surf beating against rocks. Tina was the bail.

Hailstones poured from the inky pall overhead and then' was a rush for .shelter. 'Trains and ears wore abandoned, and people crowded under balconies, but even then they were not safe, for’ the gutters became blocked and cascades of rain fell into buildings and on tho footpaths. The storm swept upon Durban irom the south-west, hut tho hail was concentrated on the borough area. In West and Smith streets the hailstones in places were Bin deep. For hour.l- - men and women slid about as they tried fo cross the streets. Even sixteen hours after the storm tb gutters were blocked with spheres of ice. some of which have been measured am. found to be seven, eight, and even nine inches in diameter, and to weig. over half a pound. So large were they that canvas awn ings were ripped to ribbons, plateglas: was shattered as if it bad been paper, and the hundreds of cars which won left in the open had their hoods turned into sieves and the bodywork filled wit], ilen is.

'Trees were stripped of their leaves, an 1 the next morning a thick greet, carpet mingled with lumps ot hail am pieces of 'broken glass. A conservative estimate places Hi damage to motor cars alone at £IO,OOO In one house fifty-seven panes of gla.s> were smashed. The Art Gallery wnflooded together with the rest of the Town Hall. Locomotives entering tb central station had to plough throng feet of bail. The telephone girls stuc plnckily to their posts, although tin exchange was Hooded. Other building damage included the Standard Ban 1 and the Rost, Office, where the clock front was smashed. CEILING CRASHES.

A few people were not quick enough to escape the bombardment of hail and wore, severely cut. The little son and daughter of Mi and .Mrs Wagner, who were staying at a private hotel in Gillespie street, criec. out/ in alarm as the storm reached ib height, and were dragged out of theii beds just as Uio coiling crashed. Then were unhurt.

Not one of the beach hotels escapee, soi'ioua damage. Shattered tiles, spun tors of asbestos ceilings, piaster, am fragments of wood from roof frame: were found in sodden bedrooms, on th beds, and on the dressing-tables. Rugs mi pets, armchairs, cushions, and othc furnishings were ruined by rain, an hundreds of windows and skylights wei smashed. With beds and rooms imiiiliabitabu and clothes soaked, the guests sat 1 parties where a dry spot could be four; mid arranged to sleep on mattress' for the night, the women in the din in; room and tho men in the lounge Where one or two had habitable rooms f.hcv offered others the opportunity e sharing. Fortunate men guests gavi up their rooms to women and slept ot couches, easy chairs, and on the car pets of lounges that were moderately drv.

Durban presented a mournful spcclach trams and trains with shattered windows wore being repaired by an army of workmen. Shop windows were being boarded up and labourers were clearing mounds of ice from the streets.