Dreadful Storm in Auckland.

Opunake Times, Volume III, Issue 139, 1 November 1895, Page 3

Dreadful Storm in Auckland.

During the severe thunderstorm which raged on Friday forenoon in Auckland (says the Herald), reaching its worst between 11 a.m. and midday, several places were struck by lightning, and in one instance considerable damage was done. Luckily no lives were lost. Shortly after 11 o’clock, a house named “ Glenarm,” situated next to Mr A. W. Ford’s refreshment rooms, at North Shore, and occupied by Mrs Dempsey, was struck. There were several people in the house at the time, but beyond a rather unpleasant shock, they sustained no injuries. From the after appearance of affairs, the lightning must have struck a pine tree growing near one corner of the house, as the top branches and about twelve feet of the trunk are shattered. The corner of the house next to the tree is considerably damaged—one of the barge boards being missing, several windows broken and the architraves almost wrenched off. The opposite end of the building was also struck; strange to say, the intervening space was unharmed. Two or three men were passing along the road by the house at the time, and one was knocked down, but only received a bad shaking. Tho full force of the storm would appear to have been experienced at the North Shore, for at 12.15 the flagstaff at Mount Victoria was struck. The topmast was splintered, and about five feet of it fell down into the yard. The house was also visited, and one of the telephones was completely destroyed. Owing to the patent lightning conductors with which the house is fitted, no other damage resulted. At St. Hellier’s Bay several telegraph poles were struck and demolished, One was struck with such force as to send it clean across the road.