THE NEVERTIEE TOBNADO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10694, 8 January 1897, Page 4

THE NEVERTIEE TOBNADO.

I , • , j Nevertire, recently visited by a tornado, is on j the direct railway line from Sydney to Bourke, j and is 162 miles from the terminus of the line. ; The township comprises about 80 houses all ■ told. This wera practically all wood and iron structures ; in fact, there are only two brick buildings in the place. The reason given for ■ this is that the ground ia of a very porous ! nature, and _ that daring the/ hot rammer weather it dries and leaves lai^e opoa cracks. These close again as goon as rain falLi, »nd the general belief is that the brick buildings do not stand bo well as wooden ones. Toe place does a good business amongst wool and other carriers, and is looked upon as being fairly progressive. Probab'y the inhabitants number 300 soul*.

For days the weather had been sultry. Those i who were weather wise predicted a storm 6a Monday. Suddenly it burst, ao.a the pkow»s enveloped in diufc. The wiud had tsrnfie force. It tore sheets of iron off the houses, and they flaw about the streets as though they were so many pieces of p».pe.r. The roofs followed bodily, and buildings came crashing dovm. How the occupau's "escaped with their livea is marvellous. Brick" chimneys 'were blown down, and, falling through the roofs, | completely filled the kitchens with bricks, | wooden beams, and sheet iron. Furniture was i smashed, and the people, who rushed From their houses to avoid the danger, were flung to the ground, and found that there was even less safaty in the streets. Even horses were lifted bodily into tho air and carried away tor some distance. They became entangled in the wire j fence?, and the falling tress; and many of them were killed. A? for the two churches— the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church—they were simply missed. They wore standing there before the storm commencad— | they had afterwards disappeare-ii No one, so 1 fur as can be gathered, ss.w them go. It wai so dark that the people could scarcaly see their Qsnds before th?m. The wind roared so fiercely, ! that although the paoplemig-at; be close together i they could not hoar each other spe.iic; and as ' for the debris flying iu the air, no one could t:ll whether it csme.fi.-om a church or from his own or his neighbour's houss. .' | -The Church of England was a comparatively I new building, capable of seating about 150 per- I sons. Nothing .in the Bhipe of a building is left—is has been smashed to atoms. There are a few form* nad-logs of wood alone left to mark the site. Tha Roman Catholic Clutch was ! only recently opened. It would accommodate i about 125 persons, and only two ssrvicen had been held in it. It had cost about £150, aud, was fully paid for. Only a portion or the porch with a cross upon it is now lefb. ' One peculiar feature of the storm (says the special of the Sydney Herald) is ths erratic ■ course the wind took As you walk down the , streets ta-day you will notice that one bnilding i has bjeu taken bo.lily away,-whilst others close ito it, and probably even slighter structures, | have been left intict. The back portion of a | hoase will have buen cut clean off, whilst.the : front portion is uninjured. . Portions of r,opfs ' i are missing, tea corner* having the appe&ranse :of having b«n oat away. Tha effeate of the ! visitation were fell; tor a discauea of over six I miles, and the Homestead* of several selectors ; and squatters were wrecked. ' Some w&Rgoas , which were being loaded with wool at the i JSevertire station were taken charge of by the ; wind and conveyed for a distance of three miles I I down the Sydney line. One large ba!e was I | blown from the station yard as though ic was a I s cork. The telegraph line between Neverfcire > and Warren was laid on tho jrround, and in I other places the foccs of the wind bent the iron ( ( telegraph posts double. At the finish of ths I j whirlwind tbere were rain and bftilstouss for ! some time, but afc the end of half an hour there i was a welcome ua!m which gave an opportunity j j to the terrißtsd inhabitants of examining the j j extent of the damage done. j i Very graphic accounts are given by the towns- i j people of their experiences during the sborm Mr Walter Butler. an agent for Messrs Wright, Heatoi), aud Co., stitss :—"The storm commenced at about a-quarter pa°t 4 o'clock. It i came from the west to the east. Immediately j beforehand it was stifling. First there was a I duot-storm, and suddenly a whirlwind came up j like a southerly butster'doos at Sydney, only with gigantio force. The townspeople, as I have heard since, were terriSed. I cln assure you it was an anxious time for all of us whilst it lusted. I had a narrow escape. As you can see, my house is * wreck, purt of the roof has gone, and the kitchen is filled with debris. I and my wife were sitting in the kitchen at the time. The sinvnj had only been on a few j minutes when the house swayed and the ceiling i began to crack. Suddenly the kitcheu chimney j came crashing through the roof. Being afr*id j tba1-, the whole house v/oald collapse, I dragged ! Mrs Butler to the front door. The wind j instantly separated us, and my wife • wa3 I « thrown under a. waggon, abant 50 yards from ' i where we were htaading. The waggon pro-! ; tecteel hes( a little; but her clothes were i I torn, and she collected some of them off the ■ waggon yesterd-vy morning. She was injured S slightly by the fall and the rough usage the j wind subjected her to. As for myself, I was I j blown away from her. A piece of corrugated i j iron struck me behind, and the wind acting on it j • l'ke a sail, drove rne along towards the Govern- j j meet tank, a quarter of a mile distant. I was ; biowu up against a tree, in company with j | another man, and I clung to it until the storm j wan over. Ai< 800gal tank came sailing aloDg j just like a ba.'loon. It is on the Government j reserve now. I could hear the sheet iron as it • came wbizzing by me, aud expected every i nsiante k> be cut by it. It cut the iron wira • fences lika a knife. Branches of trees broke i oif in all directions. See how tha place is ; strewn both by sheet iron, wotiileu joists, and {by uprooted trees and branches. You could • hear nothing distinctly, only .one loud roar, like I the roar "of the saa. There was no distinct , crash, although chimneys and houses were i falling about, and buildings were being carried away. Whan I could drag myself back I found my wife sure, still under the waggoo ; but my • house was in ruins, and my furniture broken : and damaged. The only thing that gave life to ; the place was a clock on the mantelshelf ticki ing away as though nothing had happened." j A liberal estimate of the total damage would jbo about £3000. This amount, too, is well distributed, the largest losers estimating their j loss at not more than £1000 each.