Gale Rips Roof Off Large House: Storm Havoc in Auckland

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22696, 22 July 1948, Page 6

Gale Rips Roof Off Large House: Storm Havoc in Auckland

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 21. While the proprietor of the Waiatarua Guest House in the YVaitakere Ranges, Mr. Jack Cole, was

playing cards in front of the fire with his wife and a guest, Mr. C. Hill, at the height of the storm last night the roof of the building was ripped off by the gale. None of the party was injured.

The roofing peeled off in three sections. plunged into the bush surrounding the 14-room house and destroyed a shrubbery.

The gable remained in position over one section of the house and the three occupants transferred furniture to there. They also lifted the carpets before the rain seeped through the ceiling and flooded the main part of the house. Nearly Sin. of rain fell in Auckland yesterday and last night, causing floods, slips, road blockages, rail and air delays. The rain flooded 35 acres of the Government's Owairaka housing project, closed the Pukcmiro mine at Huntly and blocked the AucklandOpua express near Towai, North Auckland. At Owairaka four valuable electric motors in a workshop were under 2ft. of water this morning while a considerable quantity of timber floated in the area. Carpenters used a boat brought by a trailer to ferry waterlogged boxes of tools from the workshop. A creek overflowed at Takapuna and flooded the grounds of several houses during the night. GALE-FORCE GUSTS

SWEEP ROTORUA

(P.A.) ROTORUA, July 21. Gale-force gusts and driving ram swept Rotorua last night and intermittent showers continued this morning. Telephonic, electrical and telegraphic communication is dislocated, but no road blockages or flooding are reported. .... , The maximum wind velocity recorded at the aerodrome was 45 miles an hour, the wind force averaging 30 miles an hour throughout the storm. The rainfall to 9 a.m. was 1.72 m. Telephonic communication with outlying areas, also with Hamilton, Auckland and Taupo, were disrupted by falling trees, and two more breaks in the electrical circuits occurred at 10.45 p.m. and 11 p.m., while at 6.10 a.m. a tree falling on the lines near the Rotorua Hospital interrupted the current for one hour.

SNOW IN SOUTHLAND

(PA.) INVERCARGILL, July 22. Snow to a depth of four inches fell in Alexandra early yesterday morning. Lighter falls are reported from Cromwell, Queenstown and Lumsden. Rain fell later in the day but there is a prospect of more snow.