FIERCE NORTHERLY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20655, 8 September 1941, Page 4

FIERCE NORTHERLY

GALE AND HIGH SEAS TARANAKI EXPERIENCE (Per Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, this day. One of the fiercest northerly gales in the memory of the oldest residents swept the north Taranaki coast on Saturday afternoon and night. A tremendous sea was running and at spring high water the sea reached almost unprecedented heights. The coast yesterday bore unmistakable evidence of the effects of the wind which was often accompanied by heavy rain. At several places along the New Plymouth foreshore the sea swept over the sandhills and at Fitzroy made a breach that endangered the motor camp behind until the tide receded. The Old Boys’ Surf Club house was partly undermined, one pile being swept away and another left without support. A number of concrete blocks stacked on the breakwater as a protection from wind were tossed from their places and it is believed that some may have been swept off into the sea. No serious damage was done to the port, but seas swept right round the pavilion on Ngamotu Beach. The railway station yards were‘for a time under water as the waves dashed over the protecting wall. Part of the New Plymouth municipal baths occupied by the caretaker, Mr. E. H, Meuli, was flooded to a depth of more than a foot and was-evacuated by the caretaker and his family who had to wade through waves being swept over the roadway.