ROOF CARRIED OFF

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 5 July 1939, Page 7

ROOF CARRIED OFF

WHIRLWIND AT EPSOM PIECES FOUND 400 YARDS AWAY GARAGE FLUNG INTO NEXT SECTION I U tilled Press A-nods non I AUCKLAND, This Day. A whirlwind strut*’; the roof of the large tramways barn at Epsom at two o’clock this morning and carried away a hundred feet of roof which was scattered over the adjoining Auckland trotting course. Pieces of the roof were found over 400 yards away, oilier pieces piercing: the platcglass windows of the main trotting grandstand. The night foreman, Mr A. Calder said that the whirlwind came with a sudden blinding flash and a terrifying roar. There was no time for the 22 men on night work to escape before a portion of the roof was torn off. They dashed out but the whirlwind ended as suddenly as it came. One man had a narrow escape. He was cleaning a tramcar when a 20ft long beam six by four fell perpendicularly within twelve inches of him cicaring the tramcar and falling into a pit.

Numerous fences and wireless pola:were blown down in the Epsom district. A large wooden garage was flung bodily into the next section, coming to rest on its roof about 40 feet away from the original site. The car remained in its original position undamaged. STARTLING EXPERIENCE The garage wnich was blown fortyfeet is to-day a jumbled mass of iron woodwork and plaster. A light car and a motor cycle which had been housed in the garage were left bare to the elements. A heavy side-cr.r which had been removed f**om the motor cycle and hung on an iron bracket on the wall of the garage was carried away with the building. The garage roof came to rest on the top of a fowl house in nn adioining section and almost crushed the fowls, which to-day looked like airraid refueees 1 thought the sid-' oi the house had blow n m' said Mrs Raymond Russell, wife of ;he owner of the garage. "My little daughter was F’ecping on the sunporch on that’side of the house and ! > rushed to i, she was all right The whirlwind came with a scream and a roar For a moment I thought it was an earthquake Next door Mrs J W Jervis, on whose section the garage was blown is convinced that there was nothing in at iea.-t one popular superstition She pointed with a -mile to-dav at Number 13” on her gate The only apparent damage to her property was the wireless which was bent at right an- ' files A macrocarpa 60ft high in Mont Lecrand road, was 'own to the ground Rain i:as fallen on five days this month He total fall being 206 inches *AIX IN PRESSURE AUCKLAND. This Day. Aft r rismg steadily yesterday banmetric ressi ' fell during the nigh and at 10 • clock to-day was 29.12. Conditions are squally and cold.