WILD WEATHER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 9 October 1928, Page 5

WILD WEATHER

CYCLONE AT SYDNEY. DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £1,000,000. MAN’S IMPROMPTU RIDE. i United I'ress Association —By Electric Telegiupo Copyright.; (Australian Press Association.) SYDNEY, Oct. S. Damage resulting from yesterday’s cvclone in Sydney and environs is estimated to be not less .than £1,000,000. Reports of destruction on a lesser scale are coming from all centres between Newcastle and Gabo. Between 200 and 300 men and women have been forced into idleness by the paper mills lire on the Eane Cove, which died out in a lurid blaze of greenish yellow flames late in the evening when they reached the building in which chlorine, sulphuric acid and other chemicals were stored. With a series of brilliant explosions the shed collapsed and firemen nearly found themselves unable to see owing to the effect on their eyes of the liberated chlorine gas. City fire engines taken up the river on punts' assisted to fight a losing battle against the conflagration. . Bush fires occurred in many places. A number of dwellings were destroyed by fire or gale, while garages and sheds were levelled in all directions. In the southern districts floods are reported to be imminent as the rivers are rising. Settlers on the river flats at Albury have been warned, and stock is being removed to high ground. The GouLburn River was fifteen feet above normal this morning at Seymour. It is expected a portion of the town will be submerged to-night. Thousands of rabbits and many snakes have been drowned. A poultry farmer named Williams had a startling experience at the height of the storm at Rydalmere. He was endeavouring to secure the iron roof of a henhouse when an abnormal gust lifted the whole roof with the man riding on it and carried it over another shed, where* it crashed against a tree. Williams was taken to hospital with a broken arm and a dislocated shoulder.

TWO HOUSES DAMAGED. TEMPESTUOUS DAY. WELLINGTON'S UNCANNY EXPERIENCE. (by 'lVtejjrapD—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 8. Wellington was treated t-o meteorological conditions of a distinctly uncanny character to-day after a night ahowling with gusts .that shook the houses and tested the fences. The day broke grey, drear and tempestuous, as far away from blithe jocund spring as one could well imagine it. The cable messages reported Sydney as being under a .pail of suspended dust and that its general direction was towards New Zealand. Whether this dust could .travel as far as New Zealand in the time or not has not been established, but the fact remains that between 9:30 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. the light from above hardly corresponded with that which usually prevails in grey murky weather. It was a dull, sickly yellow light, not unlike the effect gained when one looks at the world through amber-tinted glasses, and the only likely explanation for this, effect offered was that it might be due to .the action of the sun's rays coming through a pall of the suspended dust referred to. in the cable message.

Curiously enough, as soon as rain fell the yellow tinge faded from the colour scheme.

The Maunganui ran into a stiff northerly at 3 a.m., and 'had heavy going thereafter to Wellington, where she arrived at 6.20. She could not be berthed owing to the gale. The vessel was anchored, but dragged her moorings and .had to be taken to the northern end of the harbour. By 11 o’clock the wind had moderated and the vessel was safely brought to the wharf.

A fierce, gust of wind shortly" after 9 o'clock this morning unroofed the house of Mrs Emily Kate Alderson, il9 Moxhem Avenue, Hataitai, timiber and tiles being deposited on two neighbouring houses thirty feet away. A portion of the roof broke up in the air, tiles flying in all directions. A portion of the timber and tiles were flung through the passage of the nearer house into the breakfast room. Lumps of brick and mortar from the damaged chimneys fell in all directions, and some of the tiles went flying as far as seventy feet. An eye-witness said Alderson's roof rose as if lifted by enormous hands.

The two damaged houses were those of Mrs Birch, 121, and Mr King, 123 Moxham Avenue. The Aldersons are shifting quickly to save the furniture if possible from the threatening heavy rain. All the chimneys in Mrs Birch’s house were levelled. •

When a reporter left Hataitai at 12.30 another house was rapidly losing its roof, but nobody was at home. The whole occurrence was without accident, the children -all being at school and few pedestrians -being about. The wind was in the nature apparently of a tornado and the damage was confined practically to one spot. At 9.10 o.m. a gust of wind GO milesan hour was recorded at the Tvelburn observatory. TREES BLOWN DOWN. DAMAGE AROUND CHRISTCHURCH CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. S. Christchurch city has escaped with minor damage to fences and a few trees blown doini. Jn the country there was much more serious damage. In Springfield several chimneys were blown, down and f>oo trees are down, in the domain. At Komi Bush trees were uprooted and some sheds blown down, while at Coalgato trees suffered^and some outbuildings were unroofed. It is clear from reports to hand that thousands of frees must have been blown down all over .the plains. The flood danger from the Wairnakariri, about which. Dr. Kid son sent a special warning, seems likely to -pass, states a later message.- The river has not. been in very high flood and is already falling.