VIOLENT STORM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 119, 21 April 1936, Page 2

VIOLENT STORM

DAMAGE AT AUCKLAND. POWER STATION STRUCK. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, April 20. One of the most violent electrical storms that has occurred near the centre of Auckland for a number of years struck the area between Mount Eden and Newmarket at 3.45 o’clock to-day. A heavy lightning discharge fell upon the cable tower of the Auckland Electric Power Board’s transformer station in Crowhurst Street, Newmarket, shattering all the insulators and wrecking the whole battery of switches and switch gear within the building. All alternating current was cut off from the Epsom, Mount Eden, Eden Terrace and ltemuera districts until nearly 7 p.m. Tramway services in various parts of the city were disorganised until about half-past four. Fortunately none of the transformer station sstaff suffered any injury. The storm, accompanied by heavy rain, oame up with remarkable suddenness from the south-west. The wind had been blowing from the north all morning, but suddenly veered round to the southward, bringing the storm with it. The electrical discharges, which ■spectators in Newmarket declared to be the most brilliant they had ever seen, were confined to a small area between Mount Eden, Newmarket and Khyber Pass. As soon as the outburst was over the wind moved back to the not tn and the storm quickly blew away in the direction from which it had come. The sun shone out brightly and it was difficult to imagine that such a convulsion of nature had taken place only a short time before. AVhen lightning made a direct hit” on the sub-station it was attracted away from the building by the ■ earthed ironwork of the tower, which extends over the footpath in front and carries a large array ot 6000-volt cables. Every insulator was broken and one of the cables tell, but fortunately no one was beneath at the time. There was a short but brilliant electrical display until the power was cut off. Where the lines enter the building a number of fragments were broken from the bricks. The full force of the lightning discharge was conveyed to a battery ot switches occupying a high gallery Along one side of the interior. Ail the gear “flashed over,” receiving such damage as to make repairs impossible. The result was an electrical fire ot short duration. The fire brigade was summoned, but had little to do when) it arrived, as by that time the cur-| rent had been cut off. The Power Board’s 22,000-volt feed-| er from Penrose to King’s AA’harf was affected by the sudden extra load which the mishap threw upon it, and as a result lights in various parts ot the city were put out for short periods. ■ ! Tramway services were a good deal disorganised by the failure of the power on so many routes; but the bestj possible arrangements were made by the traffic staff. •DAMAGE TO HOUSE. AVith the force of a bursting shell lightning struck the home of Mr S. A. Johnson, at 52 Mountain Road, Epsom, and tore gaping holes in the roof and partly deinolisned a chimney. Three women in the house, Mrs Johnson, her daugnter, Miss E. Johnson, and a friend, were terrified but unhurt. Although the acrid smell of burning filled the house after it had I been struck, there was no outbreak of j fire. | The crash as the house was struck was heard for a considerable distance. | It was at first feared that either the. Mater Misericordiae Hospital or the Auckland Grammar School, the two biggest buildings in the vicinity, had sutrered, but tiie lightning struck between them. A chimney at the north-j western corner of Mrs Johnson’s two-' storeyed house was cut in halves verti- I callv and the tiled roof was penetrated in several places. Broken bricks and tiles were scattered in the front garden and across the footpath and road, 1 and several large pieces of wreckage were hurled about 50 yards into Clive Road, which is opposite. There was a crash and the house, seemed full of flame. Miss Johnson said the bricks and tiles fell in a shower, but fortunately none penetrated the ceiling. The occupants of the house mdde haste to disconnect the wireless, which was in use. The three women suffered severe shock, but were uninjured. Torrential rain that followed a few minutes after the lighting poured through the holes in the roof and soaked through the ceiling into one of the rooms. Little damage was done by the water, however, as vessels were set to catch it as it fell. Telephone wires to the house were severed. Sheets of paper which had been been on a table in an upstairs bedroom were torn into small pieces- and scattered abput the floor when the house was struck, although the curtains were not disturbed and not a single pane of glass lyas broken. Passers-by narrowly escaped being struck bv falling bricks. A motorist, Mr G. If. Joseph, who was driving in Mountain Road at the time, gave a graphic description of the house being struck. “There was an ear-splitting crash and simultaneously a vivid flash of lighting, he said, “Not ordinary lighting, but something in the nature of a severe electrical disturbance. A few seconds later there came the sound of falling tiles, and looking up I saw bricks coming .away from the chimney. The bricks did not merely 'fall —they seemed to have been thrown from the chimney,” he continued. ‘‘They went with such velocity that had anybody been struck they would surely have been killed.” Holes appeared in the tiled roof and tiles -and bricks continued falling for a few minutes. People in the vicinity hurried to the house to assist the occupants and were surprised and relieved to find them unhurt. Arrangements were made for temporary repairs to make the house watertight in the event of further rain.