GYMPIE TORNADO

Grey River Argus, 24 September 1932, Page 5

GYMPIE TORNADO

£lO,OOO Damage TRAIL OF CHAOTIC RUIN. BRISBANE, September 23. A. tornado tore across the outskirts of Gympie, leaving a trail of chaotic ruin. The Roman Catholic Church was lifted ten feet into the air, and crashed in a mass of wreckage. Railway trucks, weighing about twenty tons, wore swept off the rails. Petrol drums containing fifty gallouij, were carried forty yards away by the wind. In the One Mile District several families managed to hurry from their homes as they wore torn down like cardboard. Roads throughout the district are strewn with uprooted trees. Hundreds of sheets of galvanised iron were carried for miles. The strange vagaries of the storm were demonstrated by the fact that while houses on one side of the street were demolished those on the other side were unscathed. A number were treated for injuries from flying debris. A heavy hailstorm followed the tornado and ruined the crops. The damage to houses, shops, etc., Is estimated at £lO,OOO. All telephone and electric light wires were broken, and knotted. Two houses at Carlton Hill were lifted bodily nnd deposited two chains away. The occupants of one suffered a severe shock.