A STORM IN FIJI.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9041, 17 February 1891, Page 4

A STORM IN FIJI.

Writing from Suva on the 30th January tha Fiji correspondent of tho Auckland Herald reports :—

On Wednesday and Thursday, the 21sfc and 22nd insfc., we had very close, sultry weather, with a dull leaden sky, and that oppressiveness which always accompanies a heavy accumulation of elestiicityin the atmosphere, resulting in a very severe thunderstorm, which broke over Suva on Friday, the 23rd. Rain fell in regular tropical downpours, with vivid flashes of lightning, the immediate peals of thunder showing that the storm was right overhead. A boat in Lacala Bay had a very narrow escape, a thunderbolt striking the water a few yards from the stern of it, the electric fluid in an instant spreading over the surface of the sea like ignited spirits, completely paralysing the native crew with terror. Amost remarkable and unprecedented occurrence took place when the storm was at its greatest intensity, which was about 2 p.m. A whirlwind struck some houses situated at the corner of Cumming street and Renwick road, one of wbich was inhabited by Samoan laundresses, and contained at the moment on Samoan man two women, and two children, who appear to have been saved from death by a miracle. The house, like all others in this climate, had doors and windows open oa account of the heat. The whirlwind thus entered the house, and in much less time than it takes to write these lines the building was riven piecemeal, the floor in one entire piece with a woman upon it being wrenched off the blocks, roof, sides, and partitions scattered like a pack of cards, the floor striking the bridge over the creek some 70 yards distant, the force of the shook dashing the woman headlong into the water. Strange to say, she got ashore with only a slight injury to one of her legs. The air was darkened with debris, amidst which, whirling and pitching like a kite some hundreds of feet high was the roof of. a verandah which, after sailing seawards, was deposited before the door of Mr Duffy, the photographer. Another house be3ide this one was torn to atoms, and two houses which, being at the time untenanted, had doors and windows shut, were not damaged further than being shifted bodily for a distance of Bft. A large boatbuilding shed, newly erected, was blown down, besides other damage. The whirlwind, whose course could be traced like the cloudy pillar of old, passed over in the direction of the bishop's residence,' snapping 6fE the tops oE the mummy apple trees like matches, and in a few minutes all that there was to show that the storm fiend had smote us was a pile of wreckage that might have resulted, as far as appearances went, from a railway collision. Needless to say, the sufferers were promptly extricated from the ruins, and despatched on stretchers to the hospital. Fortunately, however, none were very seriously injured.