TORNADO IN WALES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 5 (Supplement)

TORNADO IN WALES.

": : '-" MANY HOUSES WRECKED | BELT OP RUIN 200 YARDS WIDE. : There is no parallel in the storm annals 'of South Wales to the hurricane which wrought great destruction recently in the '[' Tail Valley. The storm seems to have been of the true tornado type, a visitation very rare iu Britain, and its marked characteristic was the narrow belt of destruction, which is the feature of the tornado. The storm apparently originated near Cilfynydd, and travelled northward up the Taff Valu as far M Morthyr, a distance of about 12 miles. V.ong this Hue, over a width of about 200 yds. it did enormous damage. Churches and chapels were razed to the ground, and many houses were utterly demolished. Carried 200 Yards. Of the two deaths occasioned one was that of a collier named Thomas Llewellyn Harris, oi Cilfynydd, whose body was found at daylight in a field in the i'atf Valley, near .Abercynon. Judging fromthi> position in which the body was lying ilarns must have been picked up from the roadway by the wind arid carried 200 or 300 yards before being dashed to the "round. His body was terribly injured, So'terrific was the rash of wind that in several village* whole streets were practically destroyed, the houses being unroofed md the walls either shattered or carried i way. At frcharris the cemetery chapel was icstroyed .aid tombstones were torn irom their foundations. The post office was wrecked and the postmaster's eon was buried in the debris. He was extricated and conveyed to the hospital. The Congregational chapel was unroofed, and two girls were injured by faking debris. A Street Demolished. i At Abercynon one of the streets was almost entirely demolished and many ol the ] occupants were injured. The collapse of i I house occupied by Mr. William Blake over- ■ whelmed three of file occupants, including ir. Blake himself. When they were ex tricated it was found that all three were I suffering from fractures of the legs. The escape of this family was marvellous. When the storm broke Mr. Blake, who is an octogenarian, and one of his sons were sitting in a back room, while Mrs. Blake was in the parlour. With hardly any warning the roof fell in, imprisoning Mr. make and his son in the room. Mrs Blake was able to make her way out of the kitchen and summoned help. Mr. George Blake, after feeing that his own. children were safe, ran across the fiela to his father's' house, and, with the assistance ot neighbours, forced an entry through the kitchen, [ the roof of which had already fallen into the inner room. Here he found his father and brother pinned down by the legs and unable to move. They were got out, and it was found that each had a leg fractured. A similar injury was sustained by the servant girl,"who was in another part of the bouse. Children's Narrow Escapes. In one house at Abercynon five little • children, terrified at the roar of the storm and vivid lightning flashes, crept under tue table. A moment later the ceiling fell in, bringing with it portions of roof. The children were extricated from their perilous •, position with great difficulty. At i'air View Terrace the roofs of 13 houses, con- ■ taining 64 v inhabitants, were carried clean away'and the sleeping babies had providential escapes. The child of a Mr. and Mrs. Baker was rescued by the father and found to be sleeping unhurt with debris . piled up on either si&, the child being protected by beams from the roof, which lay across trie room, In another instance a child was rescued from a cradle in >, much i the same way, timbers from the roof forming a protective, archway over the cot. At Oi'fynydd scarcely a house remained | whole. The corrugated iron roofing.of the big co-operative stores was torn off as if it had been paper and carried a-quarter mile up the valley. The roofs of two houses were lifted away bodily, and scores -of chimneys were blown down. Part or the roof of' the Methodist chapel 'crashed ..own : on to .the roof of tne pastor's house- adjoining.- ' > ■■:'. -A hailstorm of an extraordinary character was 'experienced in East Devonshire the same day, and it was reported that the :-. hailstones were- so large as to inflict injuries on several people. The hail accompanied a violent thunderstorm. An Exeter man named Rabjohns, who I was driving.an oft tank between Uffculme j and Wellington, was struck by a lump of ice which was large enough to cut his head and partly stun him. When he recovered . .he found that his horses, frightened by the storm, had bolted. # ' Two carters who were driving- horses '"between Uffculme and Willand were oadlv bruised bv the hail. Trees were stripped of their foliage, and cattle in the Held? stampeded in aE directions. Such a storm '■has never been experienced in the district within living memory.