TERRIFIC GALE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4604, 2 October 1934, Page 5

TERRIFIC GALE

HAVOC IN THE WAIRARAPA. SEVERAL TOWNS STRICKEN. Several towns in the Wairarapa district, including Masterton, Carterton, Greytown and Featherston, suffered severely in the fiercest gale that has been experienced for many years. The hurricane started in the early hours of Monday morning and swept through the Wairarape district, causing enormous damage. A motorist who arrived at Wellington at mid-day yesterday, describes the havoc at Masterton as follows; "On our arrival at Masterton an al* most incredible scene met our eyes. Many of the huge pine trees at Mawley Park had been uprooted and were lying across the road. One tree narrowly missed a group of pedestrians. In the main street plate-glass windows were smashed in all directions and nearly all the slate and iron roofs in the vicinity had been torn off. The top storey of a newly-built wooden house had been completely wrecked and had parted company with the remainder of the building. Many of the large business premises were minus their roofs and there was hardly a window left in any of the buildings. The older houses seemed to stand up to the force of the gale more than the modern ones. Opposite a petrol station at Soiway the road is blocked by huge pine trees and gum trees, and a detour is necessary. Halfway along the Masterton-Carterton Road the 20-passenger bus which runs between Masterton and Featherston was lying on its side, having been blown over by the wind. I understand there were no passengers in the bus at the time. A little further on an abandoned motor cycle is lying in the middle of the road in a heap of debris which includes uprooted trees. For about twenty miles along the main road all telegraph lines are down, and this state of affairs apparently exists throughout the whole district. While driving along the road we had to watch carefully to avoid being ta'ngled up with the wires which had come down."

Terrifying Visitation.

For many residents of the Wairarapa the visitation was terrifying, as it was for many travellers on the roads. The gale was of great force throughout the night in Masterton, and it seemed to increase in the morning and become more extensive in its devastating effects. Service car drivers and others arriving in Wellington from the Wairarapa brought details of the havoc wrought by the storm, which indicate that the district has experienced something in the nature of a tornado.

In Masteron, Carterton, Greytown, and other places in the affected area many windows have been blown in, and many fences, outhouses and sheds blown down, but worse still is the fact that many residences, and other buildings have been badly damaged, while further evidence of the exceptional force of the gale is offering in the long trail of entangled wires, telephone and telegraph, in the many trees uprooted by the wayside and off the road, and in the levelling of substantial posts and heavy poles. In o'ne place a motor car and a motor lorry were caught in the wires which had been blown across the road and became a tangled mass. One car load of people were so terrified at the increasing force of the gale as they proceeded from Masterton to Wellington that when finally they were confronted with flying pieces of timber, of varying sizes, from a mill between Greymouth and Tauherenikau, they decided that they should return to Masterton as speedily as possible, fearing that a more serious situation might have developed in Masterton to require their immediate attention. They were able to transfer to another service car which had left Wellington in the morning. On the Rimutaka Hill, where matters, though bad enough, were not so bad as in the Valley, one car at least had come to grief. It had been lifted bodily by the wind and deposited over the side of the road. Wild Night at Featherston. A resident of Featherston, speaking to the United Press Association office at mid-day yesterday, said that the storm transcended anything in his previous experience. The wind was terrific and buildings rocked as though in a violent earthquake. The roof was taken off a cottage owned by Mr. Cairns Lee, timber merchant, and many trees and poles were dow'n. In one case fifty pinus i'nsignis trees were down in half a mile, and these had crashed on the telephone and telegraph wires, breaking off the tops of the concrete poles. To make matters worse, the electric power went off. Rivers were running high, but there was no flooding at present, and the main highway was still open. The furious roar of the rain on the roof was audible over the telephone ; while the information was being given. News from Carterton states that several buildings have been unroofed. The contents of Brownlee's timber yard were scattered far and wide, and at one place blocked the road for forty minutes. Eighteen 30ft concrete poles were down north of Carterton, and the damage appears to be considerable.