SYDNEY DELUGED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21829, 16 December 1932, Page 9

SYDNEY DELUGED

VIOLENT RAIN AND GALE WORST IN CITY’S HISTORY A TRAIL OF WRECKAGE (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY, December 15. (Received Dee. 15, at 10 p.m.) A violent storm occurred in Sydney at 4.30 this afternoon, thunder and fierce lightning being accompanied by a howling gale. All the city traffic was dislocated for half an hour. Water channels overflowed into shops, offices, and basements, and extensive damage to city and suburban property is expected. With unparalleled violence rain swept the streets, driving pedestrians to shelters, smashing windows, and unroofing houses. In various parts of the metropolitan area the wind, which had a cyclonic force of 07 miles an hour, blew down hoardings and fences, leaving a trail of wreckage and causing the greatest consternation among house holders. Four shops at Milsons Point, on the north side of the harbour, were struck by lightning or a fireball, and the wind completed their destruction. Three persons were injured. The Public Hall at Hunters Hill was brought down, while a roof of a house in the same suburb •was carried into a neighbouring tree, A large garage of the Commonwealth Oil Refineries was struck by lightning and completely wrecked. ' There were many anxious moments for the ferries during the height of the storm, when, owing to lashing rain, visibility was very bad, but reports state that all are safe. A number of cars in an underground parking area in the city were seriously damaged when a protecting fence fell from 40 feet above and stove in the hoods. Fruit barrows with their contents, were swept along the streets by swirling waters, and motor cars were deposited on the pavements. Reports from all parts of the metropolitan area disclose that torrential rain penetrated houses, causing havoc to furniture and bedding. The storm, which is described as one of the worst in the history of Sydney, was preceded by severe humidity, lowering clouds plunging the city into semidarkness. Then, with dramatic suddenness, a fierce wind brought rain in blinding white clouds after the manner of a tornado, catching everybody unawares. For the next half hour the whole city was deluged, causing an entire suspension of business and traffic. A boy w r as electrocuted at Auburn by fallen wires.