GREAT GALE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23226, 21 December 1938, Page 17

GREAT GALE

VICTORIA SWEPT HORSEMAN KILLED ————— PEDESTRIANS BLOWN OVER MANY NARROW ESCAPES Tfrom ot;v own correspondent^ MELBOURNE. Dec. 16 Reaching a maximum velocity of 90 miles an hour, the most severe lmrri- ' canp ever recorded in Victoria raged over the State on Friday and Saturday last. • / A young man was killed when a tree crashed on him and the horse he was riding near Bona; scores ,of persons suffered injuries; houses were unroofed; trees, fences and hoardings were blown down; a dredge at South Wharf was dismasted; many f fchips were delayed; thousands of windows were broken; and much other damage was caused. Men and women were toppled over in t,he streets by the force of the wind. Four men were injured at a sale on a farm at Bnllan when sheets of iron were torn from a shed and scattered among the crowd. A Terrific Crash Mrs. Stanley Jones narrowly missed death in her house at West Melbourne, when a brick chimney was blown against the wall of her two-storeyed house and bricks were thrown into tho living room, which she had left only a minute before to go upstairs. "There was a terrific crash while J was scrubbing," she "said. "The whole building shook and I was showered with plaster as one of the walls bulged in. I went downstairs and found that the roof of the living room had fallen in, and chairs, a table and other furniture wore buried beneath a heap of bricks where I had been standing only B short time previously." Severe Head Injuries Mrs. William Murphy, who lives near the Clunes Road, was less fortunate when nine feet of a brick chimney fell and crushed in the kitchen roof. A falling board knocked Mrs. Murphy tinder a table and probably saved her life, but she suffered severe injuries to her head. Ivan Irving, aged 18 years, was riding a horse on the Poowong-Korum-burra Road, near Bena. Gippsland, when a tree crashed on him. He was Wiled instantly. The horse was also killed. The hurricane caused the worst dislocation in telephone services that has ever occurred in Victoria. Repair gangs were also busy restoring railway cervices which had been temporarily disorganised, chiefly through the fall of electric wires in the suburban area and the blocking of the tracks in country districts by' fallen trees. -Berthing -tha Maunganai v ;% Shipping schedules were, upset and it was impossible for ships to move from their berths. The Maunganui from Bluff, with.3oo passengers, was delayed 12 hours in Bass Strait, and great difficulty vrai experienced in berthing her when she Reached Victoria Dock in the River Yarra. She dragged two anchors round the dock and was unable to reach the berth allotted to her. Eventually she was tied up at another berth toward which the gale had driven her. Even then a tug had to assist in holding her at-'the wharf until, extra lines were made fast, and it was two hours after her arrival in the dock before the gangway could be lowered. Dredge's Mast Breaks The Harbour Trust dredge Latrobe, moored in the river at South Wharf, experienced the full brunt of the phenomenal wind. Its mast snapped off and crashed to the deck, narrowly missing Jack Scott, a member of the crew.. The Melbourne Cricket Club centenary match between Bradman's test team and the Rest was interrupted when the gale topped over a sightboard. The players rushed to the nssistance of an attendant in reinstating the board, but shortly afterward a stronger gust lifted a portion of it over the fence of the ground, and for the rest of the day there- was no sigbtboard at that end. The maximum velocity of 90 miles an hour was recorded at the E-ssendon airport, an exposed site, where the instruments are 75ft. above the ground. Red Dust Visitation Recordings at the Weather Bureau showed that the wind on the first day of the storm consistently exceeded-50 miles an hour and reached a maximum '• of 61 miles an hour. The strongestwind ever recorded at the bureau was 72 miles an hour in May,'■l923. On the second day. of the gale the maximum was 56 miles an hour. Further discomfort was caused when, light rain fell. Because of the quantities of red dust blown from Central Australia and the parched Mallee, the effect of the fall was to produce Melbourne's notorious ."red rain. People s clothing "was plastered with mud and motor-cars skidded" dangerously. But the rain '' did not last long, and did nothing to relieve the rigours of the draught from which the State is suiiering. / :