DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 16, 20 January 1914, Page 6

DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO.

HOTEL AND HOUSE IN THE AIR.

Particulars have' come to hand I (says .a-Port Pirie imessage to, the.Sydney ; Sun) regarding the terrific tornado experienced at Iron Knob on December 29. The 'whole township is completely wrecked, and there is not one residence that did not sustain some damage. The majority, of the buildings hare been swept completely" away, and wreckage-is. strewn' all over'the.-town.

• Fortunately no loss of life occurred, but several miraculous escapes are reported;- Two men—W. R. -Davidson and.F. J. Burnham—were inside a pottage which somersaulted three times, and was afterwards smashed to atoms in a railway cutting 30 yards away from where it previously stood * Both men were taken to Port Pirie Hospital in a tugboat. Davidson was injured on the groin and Burnham a shoulders were badly cut. ./Two rows of weatherboard cottages owned by the Broken Hill proprietary Company, .were swept away like matchwood; and after being turned over several times' were smashed to. splinters. One man had only just time to get his, wife and four children out of the house., -when it was lifted some feet in the air, and .was tossed a chain away, where it fell to pieces. Davidson, in giving his experience, said he-was out working .at Aron quarries. with other Proprietary Company's employees when it began to rain heavily. As the town was a mile away from, the quarries, Davidson commenced to run home with Burnham. The storm was fairly violent at that time, but nothing very extraordinary. The men each went to their rooms to change their wet clothes.

• "Suddenly," continued Davidson, '^there was a great upheaval, to the accompaniment of a fearful roar. The building seemed to rise and topple over. I was, thrown against a wall three times, and the structure went completely over. It pulled up with a crash i,n the railway cutting' about 30 yards along, and the walls were smashed almost to splinters. Burnham was in the next room, and his experience rwas similar to mine. How we escaped with, our lives I cannot say, but I shall 'never forget.that ex■perience: • Tlhe^e was* disorder and debris everywhere; ■• Luckily very fevr residents were in their, homes at the time. Had it occurred during the night, I have tk> doubt that fearful destruction to life would have resulted."

Mr Robson, a commercial traveller, confirms Davidson's account. He states that the cyclone first struck the residence of P. Brett and dislodged it from its foundations. Furnitmre was scattered everywhere, and one of the bedrooms parted from the rest of the building and struck a> fence 50 yards away, where it smashed to pieces. Evon the "••"I dul not escape, and was one "of the first to turn turtle.

Fortunately the cells did not contain any prisoners. The roof of Young, and Gordon's general store, the j largest building in the town, was torn j off,* and the contents pitched about th\) street. A.t Burton's Hotel a ihotisand-gallon tank was carried 100 yards away to the railway. Cottages; ■went ■■ down, ■before the tornado, and only .the three walls of J. Farrell's i house were left standing. Trees were \ uprooted like plants, and a bicycle, \ which had been hanging up in front of ; a store, was found in a tree 150 yards away. Mrs Puddy and her children were nearly crushed beneath their house, and were rescued in the nick of time by a publican, who had waded waist deep in water to rescue them. It is remarkable that the visitation only lasted- about 10 minutes.. The township contains about 60 houses, and is inhabited mostly by single men, the majority of whom are employed by the Proprietary Company..