HOUSES STRUCK

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 August 1946, Page 4

HOUSES STRUCK

DAMAGED BY WHIRLWIND

ROOFING IRON THROWN HIGH • IN AIR

A TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION

A whirlwind swept in from the sea and passed over Greymouth at about 8.40 this morning. Its path lay for the most part over paddocks and vacant land, and only two •houses were damaged to any extent. Both of these residences appeared to have been struck glancing blows by the whirlwind which fortunately altered its course slightly to miss the houses in Town Belt.

A shower of heavy rain accompanied the whirlwind. It came from the sea and struck Blaketown near the aerodrome with a roar that was heard by many residents in the locality. It then continued north across the empty paddocks, striking Cowper street across the stream from the swimming baths, uprooting a fence between houses occupied by Messrs Wills and Ingram. It advanced in a north-easterly direction, narrowly missed a house occupied by the Misses Dixon on the corner of Cowper and Brunner streets and uprooted a large Norfolk Island pine tree in the front garden. Two Houses Damaged.

No damage was caused in Dixon Park, but a two-storeyed house on the corner of Tainui street and Town Belt, owned by Miss W. Perotti, was hit. The roof of the second-floor verandah was lifted high into the air, the material being deposited at the rear of the property and at the rear of Perotti'Hall. Fortunately, instead of continuing its course over the houses in Town Belt, the whirlwind veered to the left and raced through the Greymouth and Columba tennis clubs’ courts. The nesting fences were left on an angle and gates were torn from their fastenings, while a corrugated iron fence dividing the courts of the two ■ clubs was almost flattened.

The whirlwind then resumed its original course and, as it struck the toe of the hill in Alexander street, appeared to shoot upwards, striking as it did the protruding eaves at the corner of another house divided into flats and also owned by Miss ( Perotti. The roofing material covering two bedrooms in a flat occupied by Mrs. N. Preddy and her two young children was flung into the air and, as the whirlwind moved on, the sheets of iron floated singly to the ground.

Fortunately,. Mrs. Freddy and her two children were in the kitchen when the two other rooms were unroofed, but were considerably alarmed when the house shook violently as a result of the impact. The heavy rain poured into the unprotected rooms, and the furnishings were somewhat damaged. There are further houses higher on the hill, but the whirlwind apparenly did not continue, its contact with the hill having resulted in its leaving the ground. Eye-Witness’s Account., There was apparently not a single person on the street in the vicinity of the Town Belt and Alexander street when the whirlwind gyrated towards the hill. Anyone in its path, according to an eye-witness, would surely have been swept off his feet. “It was all over before I could breathe,” said an eyewitness, “rne rain-water was* sucked from the ground and was spilled out from the top of the whirling column. As it sped towards the house, the roof looked as if it had been punched by a gigantic fist. It flew high into the air, the sheets of iron descending like falling leaves.” Previous Visitations. This morning’s occurrence was not the first time a whirlwind has been experienced in Greymouth. In fact these visitations are not rare. On most occasions, the wind has followed a similar course, usually between Cowper street and Victoria Park. Some years ago a whirlwind practically wrecked the Greymouth Trotting Club’s grandstand at Victoria Park, some of the debris from the building being finally deposited high on the hillside, while another sheet of roofing iron killed a horse. Another visitation unroofed a house near the intersection of Cowper and Franklin streets. A third and more recent whirlwind followed a route nearer town and over more closely settled areas. As a .result many houses in Arney street as far as Chape] street were damaged.