CANTERBURY NOR’-WESTER

Evening Star, Issue 23136, 9 December 1938, Page 14

CANTERBURY NOR’-WESTER

DAMAGE TO POWER AND PHONE LINES .TREES BLOWN ACROSS ROADS (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, December 8. Extensive damage to power and telephone services in North Canterbury was done to-day by a north-westerly gale of exceptional severity. Numerous faults occurred in the telephone system in Christchurch, these being caused through wires crossing and limbs of trees becoming entangled in the wires. No .serious damage was done, and the only ease of injury was that of a woman whose hand was cut by flying fragments of glass when a tree fell against a carriage of a train on the way from Christchurch to Rangiora. The gale was most intense in North Canterbury, where lines and poles were broken. Whole trees and branches were blown across roads, and breakdowns of the electric supply and telephone services were reported from many districts, and linesmen were out working under most unpleasant conditions all day. Trees uprooted by the fierce wind fell across the wires at several places up to 20 miles north of the city. Although extensive, the damage to private property was not serious. Wheat and oats crops escaped the damage which might have been caused had the crops been more advanced. Little damage was done in the orchards, although, at Loburn, apples wore shaken from the trees in the more exposed orchards.

A brick parapet 3ft high and 4ft Gin long and about 12ft of woodwork were blown on to the roof of a two-story grocer’s shop at North Brighton. No one was injured. A number of poplar trees at North Brighton were also blown down.

When the big “Safety Week” banner anchored to a heavy iron lamp bracket above the entrance to the municipal offices was caught by the gale, the lamp was torn from its base and crashed 25 feet into the centre of Manchester street, bringing with it part of the balustrade. A warning that the lamp would fall was given by a picture theatre manager, and a queue of children waiting to enter the Civic Theatre to attend the screening of a “ Safety Week ” film were moved out of danger. In the Botanic Gardens and city reserves, branches were blown from trees, but little damage was done to plants. As is the practice during strong winds, the larger trees in the Botanic Gardens were kept under observation by the staff in the interests of public safety.

SOUTH TARANAKI VISITATION VIOLENT ELECTRICAL STORM [Pkb United Press Assocunos.) NEW PLYMOUTH, December 8. The power supply was cut off in South Taranaki and the telephone services from New Plymouth northwards were disrupted by a violent electrical storm which passed over the province this morning, accompanied by torrential rain and wind of gale force. Hawera was without power for two hours and a-half, and at Patea, which is supplied from Hawera,'the emergency plants had to bo brought into operation. Minor damage to electrical equip-ment-was reported from all parts of the province, transformer fuses being blown, accompanied at times by loud reports and vivid flashes. Telephone subscribers were cut off and household electrical appliances affected. The streets were awash in towns during the height of the downpour and water entered several buildings at Okato, the coastal area receiving the full force of the fierce westerly. No other serious damage was reported, and the storm passed quickly.

THUNDERBOLT FALLS

A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION [T’Eii United Piiess Association.l WESTPORT, December 8. At Miko, 25 miles north of Westport, on Wednesday evening, brilliant electrical phenomena lighted all the countryside, accompanied by heavy thunder, and these phenomena reached their peak at 0.45 a.m., when a thunderbolt fell, a ball of fire which, after striking the radio aerial of Mr iR. B. Colliding, burst into countless fragments of fire a few feet from a bedroom window. The bursting of the thunderbolt was accompanied by a terrific explosion like a cannon shot, and sent a rain of sparks all around. Upon investigation yesterday morning, Mr Colliding found that the aerial was cut off at each end by the insulators as clean as if it had been done by a knife. The telephone and the radio were both silenced. There was a large hole in a shed roof and numerous farm implements were strewn around, havingbeen thrown over by the concussion of the explosion. The telephone wires were also cut for a chain along the road.