GREAT HAILSTORM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 19 August 1929, Page 7

GREAT HAILSTORM.

HAVOC AT DURBAN

STRiEiETSi Sin. DEEP IN ICE.

DURBAN, June 22 Durban to-day is busy on tlie melancholy task of estimating the enormous amount of damage done by last night s hailstorm, the most violent in the history of the town. The damage to motor-cars alone is put at £IO,OOO while several hotels will have to spendi as much as £2OOO ir. replacing furnishings mined by rann and rooifs sun as bed in by hail. Starting at 0 o’clock haul as heavy as cricket balls rained furiously on the town for half an hour. The tiled roots of manv commercial and residential buildings in the path of the storm cracked under the fierce bombardment, and! the occupants were, flooded out. So many windows and l roofs were smashed that it will take weeks to repair the damage. In West street -Uuiban’s biggest stores bore the full brunt of the visitation. The lumps of hail knocked holes in windows and ramlights and rain flooded the basement, causing, enormous damage. The storm broke just as business people, were returning home. Battle warning was given. Except for a tew flashes of lightning and the rumbling oi distant thunder everything was normal until suddenly there arose a sound like heavy surf beating against rocks, Ims was the hail. . ~ . ~l Hailstones poured from the. inky pall overhead and there was a rush for shelter. Trams and cars were abandoned, and the people crowded under balconies, but even then they were not safe, .for the gutters became blocked and oa.sea cites of rain foil into buildings and on the footpaths. The storm swept upon Durban from the south-west, but the hail was concentrated on the borough area. In West and Smith Streets the hailstones in places were Sin. deep. For hours afterwards men and women slid about as thev tried to cross the. streets. Even now, 16 hours after the storm, the. gutters are blocked with spheres of ice, some of which, have been measured and found to; be. seven, eight and even nine inches in diameter and to 1 weigh over bafllf a pound. So large were they that canvas awnings were .ripped to ribbons, plate-gjass was. shattered as if it had been paper, and the hundreds of ears which were left in the open had their hoods turned into sieves and! the bodywork filled with dents. . 'frees were stripped of their leaves, and this morning a thick green carpet j mingles with lumps, of hail and pieces of broken glass. A conservative estimate places the damage to motor oars alone at £IO,OOO. In one house 57 panes of glass were .smashed. The Art Gallery was flooded together with the rest of the Town Hall. Locomotives entering the Central station had to plough through several! feet of hail. The telephone girls stuck placidly to their posts, although the exchange was floodled. Other buildings. damaged! include the.. Standard Bank and the. Post Office, where the clock front was smashed. A few people were not quick enough i to escape the bombardment of haill and were severely cut. Mrs Dewdney was one of these ,and Miss Minnie Simpson was struck senseless by a large hail-

stone. The little son and daughter of Mr and* Mrs Wagner, who were staying at ai private hotel in Gillespie Street, cried out in alarm as the storm readied' its height, and were dragged out of their beds' just a.s the. ceiling crashed 1 . They were, unhurt. Not one of the beach hotels escaped serious damage. Shattered, tiles, splinters of asbestos ceilings, plaster and of wood from roof frames weie, found in sodden bedrooms, on the beds, and on the dressing-tables. Pugs, carpets, armchairs, cushions and other furnishings were ruined by rain, and hundreds of windows and skylights were smashed'.

With bods, and rooms uninhabitable, and clothes soaked, the guests sat in parties where a dry spot could: be found and arranged to sleep on mattresses for the might, the women in the diningroom. and: the men in the lounge. Whore one or two had habitable rooms they offered others the opportunity of sharing. Fortunate men guests gave up their rooms to women and slept, on conches, easy oliairs, and on the carpets of lounges that were moderately dry.

Durham presents a mournful spectacle—trail® and trains with shattered windows' are 'being repaired bv an army of workmen. Shop, windows are being boarded up and labourers are clearing mound's of ice from the streets.