STORM WRECKS CAMP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20987, 25 September 1931, Page 10

STORM WRECKS CAMP.

TENTS TORN TO RIBBONS. Relief workers at Camp Hill Top had an unpleasant experience before their canvas homes were established in the sheltered security of a plantation, says a Christchurch paper. The site originally chosen for the camp was on a bleak ridge at the head of the Okains Bay saddle. It was exposed to every wind that, blows and felt the full force of the fierce gale last week. After the arrival of the first contingent from Christchurch, a cookhouse and dining room had been erected and tents pitched on the crown of the slope. Early on Thursday morning—before all were out of bed—the gale arrived without warning. Terits were torn from the moorings and whirled down the gullv hundreds of feet below. Those who were still sleeping had lo clutch their blankets as they struggled up in bed with the fierce rain pelting down on their unprotected heads. A window in the dining room blew in with a loud report. Tents were still sailing along before the gale. In one tent, a man had scrambled from his bed when the canvas was suddenly whipped away and the wind blew his shirt up over his head, leaving him temporarily blind and helpless Between 6..30 a.m. and lunch time, 11 of the 18 tents were blown down. Some of them were recovered torn to ribbons. The men's gear was distributed over a mile of steeply sloping hillside and all has not been recovered yet.