HOLIDAY RUINED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26659, 3 January 1948, Page 5

HOLIDAY RUINED

CAMPING GROUNDS AWASH SYDNEY EXPERIENCES HEAVY RAIN Rec. 10 p.m. SYDNEY, Jan. 2. Torrential rain and thunderstorms which drenched thousands of holidaymakers yesterday afternoon are continuing to-day. Tents are awash and camping grounds a quagmire at resorts and beaches such as Avalon, Narrabeen and Palm Beach where hundreds of people ai'e abandoning their holidays and returning home. A Highland gathering, which had to be abandoned last New Year's Day because of giant hailstones which caused many casualties, was flooded out yesterday but the pipers played on to the bitter It was the wettest New Year's Day since 1901, for though the morning was cloudless and rain did not start gererally until after 3 o’clock, 162 points of rain fell in the metropolitan area before 9 p.m. Near the township of Liverpool, 20 miles from Sydney, a man and a horse were struck by lightning and killed instantly. Two men were riding in company when lightning appeared to strike a rifle carried by one of them. His companion's horse bolted, and the rider is still partially deaf from the explosion which accompanied the lightning. The dead man was extensively burned, as was the back and saddle of the horse.