THE WANGANUI GALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17351, 24 December 1919, Page 10

THE WANGANUI GALE.

RESIDENT'S NARROW ESCAPE. A TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE. [BY. TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] V7ANGANTJI. Tuesday. A narrow escape from death during the gale on Sunday night was experienced by Mr. Duncan Urquhart, one of Wamganui's oldest inhabitants. He has attained the age of 80 years, and while on his way to his son's residence he caught the full force of the cyclone and had a terrifying experience.

" Just as I got to the corner of In-, gestro and Harrison Streets," he said to-day, " a terrific thunderstorm broke. The lightning was appallingly vivid, and the voice of the thunder deafening. When the noise was at its height a tree fell crashing apparently right on top of me. A limb from the tree struck me on the shoulder and knocked me down. I, however, was not the only thing struck by the tree, as it crashed right on to a lamp-post, and shivered lamp and post to matchwood. " What with the pealing of the thunder, the smashing of timbers, the splintering of broken glass ; and the fallen tree all round me, you can imagine that I did not know .for a while what had happened." At last a man who had been sheltering from the cyclone in a doorway across the street, came over and • assisted Mr. Urquhart to extricate himself from the debris. The weather is still very boisterous.