STORM AND FLOOD.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 73, 10 March 1913, Page 5

STORM AND FLOOD.

ROUGH WEATHER IN N.S.W. [PBESS ASSOCIATION COPYRIGHT.] Sydney, March 8. , A strong gale with torrential rain struck the city yesterday. The streets were flooded and considerable damage was done. Sailing boats in the harbour had a rough time, and one member of a yacht’s crew was swept overboard and drowned. Races and sports were postponed. The rain, heavy weather and rough sea continues and shipping is sheltering. Later. The rain has cleared but the weather on the coast is still rough. Saturday night’s storm was the heaviest for a long time. There was thunder and torrential rain for several hours over a wide area. The low-lying suburbs round the Mairickville district were deeply flooded, and many people were compelled to leave their houses to take refuge in the town hall. Elsewhere the tram service was stopped. A cab was overturned in the flooded waters at Leichardt. and the driver drowned, while the passenger escaped. Telegraphic communication was badly interrupted, including the line to La Perouse, necessitating the sending of press association cablegrams by messenger. THE WORST ON RECORD. GREAT DAMAGE AT SYDNEY. EXCITING RESCUES FROM HOUSES. (Received 10, 9.35 a.m.) Sydney, March 10. The storm is one of the worst on record. The metropolitan area had the misfortune of being its centre. From a moderate north-easterly gale it developed to hurricane force. For a couple of hours it was accompanied by deafening thunder and vivid lightning, with a deluge of rain. Altogether the rainfafll in 281 hours in the city registered 759 points. The streets were transformed into streams sweeping over the low-lying areas, which were quickly submerged, in some places many feet deep.

The tram services were dislocated through the debris blocking the rails. Long stretches are under water. Sixty cars were derailed, but none injured. The ferry service has been discontinued.

Moored vessels and small craft got a rough handling. The only harbour fatality, previously cabled, was that of the drowned man, Walter Moore, who was a prominent yachtsman. A peculiar fatality was caused by a Waterloo electric wire, which broke and in falling curled round the neck of a man named Clifford, who was electrocuted. The cabman who was drowned at Leichshardt, named Stockley, was driving in the darkness along the load, and came to a deep tip filled with flood water, where the horse stumbled. The body was recovered in eight feet of water. The horse was also drowned.

The damage all round the city, particularly in the western suburbs, is very severe.

The streets and up-town gardens have been destroyed, trees uprooted, fences and outhouses washed away, houses flooded, and hundreds of fowls and domestic animals destroyed.

Around Marrickville it is estimated the flood water encroached on 600 houses, greatly damaging furniture, and in some cases washing away portions of the houses.

Along Cook’s river, the river invaded the houses and the inmates had an exciting time. They refuged on -tables and on the roofs.

A man swam the river a quarter of a mile, secured a boat and rescued twenty-two men and four children.

In several cases the flood was too high to the doorways and the iron roofs had to be removed before the inmates could be rescued from their perilous position. At Homebush, the roof of a house, ocupied by Mr. Cameron, secretary of the Civil Ambulance, his wife and four children collapsed. The wife was pinned by a beam to the bed, but was rescued uninjured. Two of Ibe sons suffered severe scalp wound?. EXPERIENCES IN COUNTRY DISTRICTS. MEN DROWNED AZ NEWCASTLE. HOUSES UNROOFED. (Received JO, 10.5 a.-n.) Sydney, ?4argb 10. The troops at Liverpool weie flooded out. The whole camp is under water. At Bankstown the water Lacked against the railway and took possesion of a number of houses. A couple of families refuged on the roofs. Rescuers with a raft took off others. Some families spent the night on their tables, refusing to abandon their furniture.

At Campbelltown the floods caused serious damage to houses and shops, ami many live stock perished. At Newcastle, the heavy storm caused a flood. Ten draught horses belonging to the Australian Agricultural Company were being driven through the street when an electric light wire broke and fe’l on the animals. and thee were all killed. A man named O’Donnell fell into a storm-water channel and was drowned.

Another man named Worthington was drowned when crossing a flooded creek at C’ifton. Tiie roof of the Imperial Hotel w as carried a hundred yards and dropped on another building, which it wrecked. Other buildings were unroofed and damaged. Sonic- of the customers who were sleeping at the hotel and residents of adjoining places bad miraculous « -capt A number or railway washawavs have occurred, and trains are hi Id up. The t aphie ices ;I re se doii'.v blocked.

The steamer Queensland, from Melbourne to Newcastle, which was anchored off Wilson’s Promontory, has broken down and has asked for immediate assistance. A ROUGH TIME AT SEA. WRECKAGE AT MANLY. (Received 10. 10.5 a.m.) Sydney. March 10. Several coasting vessels overdue are supposed to be sheltering. Those arriving have had some rough handling. The Brookvale reports that a mast and parts of a derrick are sticking out of the water at the long reef, near Manly. Investigation of a possible disaster will be made at daylight.