EFFECTS OF A HURRICANE

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 113, 16 May 1906, Page 4

EFFECTS OF A HURRICANE

WHARES LIFTED I"NTO A RIVER,

During the hurricane in the Carfcerfcon district on Friday night the men employed by Booth & Co., sawmillers, up the Mangatarere Valley, went to the trouble of roping their whares down with wire. They were in uneasy slumber till early the following morning, when a hurricane gust lifted the whares, three in number, from their ropes and deposited them in the river. .- Nearly everything was swept away; food and a lot of clothing all went by the board. The wind was so fierce that the men had to crawl frpm where their whares had stood upon their hands and knees. Even then they were not safe, for the wind picked an employee named Inns up and dashed him senseless against a fence. The men only reached shelter after much difficulty. One of the whares was lifted clean over a seven-wired fence before being deposited in the river. The men did the best they could in the circumstances ; they dressed themselves in tho remaining attire they possessed and tramped down to the homes of other settlors, where they were hospitably welcomed. At tho company's sawmill, near Carterton, the wind ripped a third of the iron roof from tho btiilding, purlines and all, spreading the sheets oyer the paddock, and carrying some of them a distance of a. quarter of a mile. In the yard the timber "was blown in all directions, great heavy stacks of birch, Bft by sft, being thrown about in the greatest disorder. Stacks of lighter timber have been capsized in all directjonSj When the staff attended at the office va, the mprning a lengthy picket was discovered 1 sticking through the window, an indication of the danger of being in a timber yard when there is a gale.