SWEPT BY CYCLONE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20620, 19 July 1930, Page 10

SWEPT BY CYCLONE.

FARMS NEAR NEW PLYMOUTH. EXTENSIVE DAMAGE DONE. TOWN LIGHTING SYSTEM FAILS. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] NEW PLYMOUTH, Friday. A cyclone of great force swept across the back of New Plymouth this afternoon, leaving behind it a trail of damage among suburban farms. On ono property alone damage to the extent of £SOO was done. Although the path of the wind was only about two chains wide, its force was tremendous. It lifted the roof off a cowshed and flung the lorn timber and iron like pieces of paper about the holding paddock. Huge posts of heavy hardwood were scattered like matches and sheets of corrugated iron were tossed about and crumpled.

A porch was torn from a house and thrown yards away. A five-ton haystack was lifted bodily and tossed until it broke lip completely, the hay being spread over a wide area. Broken fences and hedges marked the path of the cyclone. Apparently it started from the sea and swept inland. Heavy rain was falling when it came over and a heavier downpour succeeded it. making an assessment of the damage when darkness fell exceedingly difficult.

Many farmers had exceedingly narrow escapes. One man was working outside his house when lie heard a loud noise like thunder. He glanced up and saw the storm coming up the valley some way off. "It looked like a cloud of smoke," he said, "and it was travelling fast." Apparently the rain gave it the appearance of smoke. Another man described it as a big wall of dust. As far as could be ascertained no person was hurt.

Most damage was done at the wellknown Hollyoak farm of Mr. John Hale, Upper Avenue Road, and the owner estimates liis loss conservatively at £SOO. Hie roof of a largo cowshed was torn of! with a terrible noise and scattered into pieces. Simultaneously the roof of the hayshed parted from the fastenings. "Sheets of iron were whirling four or five hundred feet in the air," said Mr. Hale "The atmosphere was thick with pieces of flying timber, splinters and debris. The big sheds were upset and went bowling all over the place." A piece of iron from one of Mr. Hale's sheds was hurled across the power line on the main road between the power station and the town, dislocating the whole electric supply to New Plymouth for ten minutes until the section was isolated and the obstructing" iron was removed. On the Frankley Road the farm of Mr F. L. Bishop suffered. A largo cowshed just completed was moved bodily off its piles. The storm then passed over the bush reserve, snapping off branches, uprooting trees and stripping foliage.