GREAT SYDNEY STORM

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 131, 3 May 1927, Page 3

GREAT SYDNEY STORM

DAMAGE AND DESOLATION. MANY BUILDINGS UNROOFED SYDNEY, April 21, Sydney has just spent the most miserable Eastertide of its history. For a week it has rained and the winds have blown for days on end. The oldest inhabitant has to search his memory to find an equal to the cyclonic storm that within the past seven days has wrought hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage, has flooded wide areas in the coastal strip of this State, Iras caused at least eight known fatalities. and has entirely, spoilt this city’s great agricultural show and racing carnival. All this-was the result of two severe disturbances, both of cyclonic force. The first came from the northeast, and having drenched the coastal districts from the Queensland border southwards, spent itself by Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon was fine, but that night a storm from the southeast developed, hesitated sufficiently on Monday to entice thousands of people to the Show and the Handwick races, and then burst decisively upon them as they were hurrying Iromewards. That was ttye start of a cyclone vyhicli raged incessantly for 3G hours or more. All Monday night the gale raged with a force of over GO miles an hour and did not slacken until Wednesday. During those two nights and a day most of tire damage was done. ELECTRIC CABLES TORN DOWN. In every suburb of Sydney and in the city itself many buildings were unroofed, blown down, or damaged. It was a proud man who could boast on Tuesday that his residence had been rainproof and windproof. Thousands of families spent the night dropping up pools of water or mending leakages in roofs. Those who were visiting the city had unenviable experiences in regaining their homes. The wind tore down electric tram and train wires, practically placing both systems out of commission. t Telephonic communication was almost obliterated. In many suburbs the electric light cables were torn down, and thousands of homes and streets were in utter darkness. Ferry services to Manly and other suburbs on the north side of the harbour were suspended, and residents had to find their way home in the best way they could. Flayed by this cyclone, Sydney lived through a night of terror that it never wishes to see again. The gale took it 6 toll of human life. At least six deaths were directly traceable to the fury of the storm on Monday night alone. In most cases the victims were either hit by flying debris- or came into contact with fallen j live wires. In one instance, an oldage pensioner became lost in the fierce storm, ajul wandering on to a railway line was run down by a train. In the course of tho storm on Saturdty a man was killed by a landslide near Newcastle. DROWNING OF TEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL. The saddest event was the drowning of a ten-year-old girl in the Tuggerah Lakes district, about GO miles north of Sydney. She had left her home to walk to a post office, and when 6lio did not return, a search was made by. residents. Late at night a bag she had been carrying .was found eddying in flood waters and next morning her body was discovered floating in a swollen creek. Coastal rivers like the Hawkesbury ' Hunter and Shoalhaven were swollen into huge, rushing torrents. Many thousands of acres of farmlands were flooded. Houses, sheds and hayricks were washed away, and many cattle, pigs and hrosce were drowned. The breakdown of telegraphic communicottion has prevented full details of losses being known even at this late stage of the week, hut it will be impossible to calculate the damage wrought by this Easter gale even when communica- j tions have been restored. In Sydney and suburbs alone it must run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, and that in country districts could easily bring tho total up to £500,000. It was a relieved Sydney, indeed that was eventually assured by the State meteorologist, Mr Mares, that the centre i of the cyclone had moved from Syd-! ney and was proceeding toward New Zealand.

TERRIBE TIME AT SEA. Steamers had a terrible time. Apart from the grounding of tho passenger steamer Riverina at Gabo Island, dozens of vessels near the coast were in dire peril for days on end. Rather than risk running for the entranco to Port Jackson, visibility being bad, several large steamers rode out the gale at sea. Passengers on tho Makambo from Lord Howe Island came through the gale, and they swore that it was only the skill of tho master, who never left the bridge, that brought them safely to port. So relieved were these passengers when at last the Makambo berthed that they lined up and cheered the captain, while several women broke ranks, rushed to him and kissed him.