TRAIL OF DAMAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 246, 15 September 1936, Page 9

TRAIL OF DAMAGE

CYCLONE AT TAURANGA. TAURANGA, Sept, 12. A cyclone of intense velocity struck The Mount this week, leaving a trail of damage in its wake. An eye-witness described the extraordinary spectacle of seeing a large proportion of the roof of a building disintegrating into midair. The pieces were afterwards sustained there by a whirlwind for a considerable time. * There are also reports of many minor cases of damage. Carpenters were quickly on the scene, and reconstruction work was completed late in the evening. Iron hnd to be retrieved from all directions, even on Mount Drury. Power lines were snapped in many places. The cyclone diminished as rapidly ns it started, and heavy rain followed. Mrs F. M. Blake described her experience during the whirlwind,. She wns on the back of the verandah and was remarking on the queer wind to a painter, who was working there, when suddenly there were three loud thuds, I like an explosion. Twisted iron and 1 pieces of board from the front of the house came flying over her head. The wind came in a small upstairs bedroom, completely unroofing it. The wind then travelled down and blew its way out through the wall of the sitting room. I It was singular that not one article lof furniture in either room was disI turbed. Even a bowl of flowers which was standing on a table directly under the hole in the sitting room was not blown over. Iron and timber, which came off the house, was crumpled and twisted like cardboard, and some pieces ! disappeared over Mount Drury and out •to sea. ! An old resident of The Mount con-siders-that the whirlwind was a meeting of an east and west wind right at . the corner of Mrs Blake’s house. This j accounts for the noise of the explosion.