GALE AT GREYMOUTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2784, 24 July 1907, Page 34

GALE AT GREYMOUTH.

SERIOUS DAMAGE DONE.

LOSS ESTIMATED AT THOUSANDS , OF POUNDS. GREYMOUTH, July 21. The most severe gale ever remembered swept over the town on Saturday • night and Sunday morning, doing enormous damage. Nearly every place in the' business portion of the town suffered some damage. On Mawhera -quay plate-glass windows were smashed, and several vernadahs were ' carried bodily away. Rools of sheds in the railway yards were torn off, and Detective Campbell's residence was almost totally destroyed. Victoria Park suffered severely, the grandstand being blown down and fences laid low. Two houses in course of erection near the park collapsed. A foundry roof was taken off. The residential portion of the town had fences and several chimneys blown down, and trees uprooted/;. The 'gale is still raging and it" ia unsafe, to be in the streets. Sheets of i-ron, «>to., are flying everywhere. -iThe . damage , is estimated to run into thousandsof pounds. Although there were several narrow escapes^ - no serious accidents are reported..

(Feom' Oxra Own Cobrespondext.) GREYMOUTH, July 21; .' Even at the time of writing it is imposv sible tip. give a full account of the dan?ago Grey mouth has suffered within tber.iast 24hours. Yesterday" morning a • high easterly wind was blowing, heightening into*» stiff?, gale as the day wore on, and- blowing with? cylonie force during" the evening and early - this morning. It is 18 months since we? had a similar) visitation, . but 0n... this occasion the damage is more... widespread end of a serious nature. The gale raged all night with unabated fury. This morning it was calmer,, but this afternoon » .gale of increasing- severity is v blowing, bringing in its train . much destruction. The .worse damage so far recorded is at Victoria Park (which suffered on a previous occasion}, where the roof of the grandstand has been completely torn sway, the main struo^ ture itself shaken, -the. stables completely - demolished, and chains of fencing carried away. A rough estimate would' show the> damage to be about £400. At Cobden/ where nearly every chimney has been levelled, Sk-ewta's Public Halt has been brought down, the only portions now reO maining being the front and back., .-The; damage is of an extensive, nature, and rebuilding will have to«, be resorted, to. -,'Atf Blaketown. another .suburb of Greymoutb}. » houses are said, to have, been -levelled an old man having a narrow, escape.': >Many,, windows have been broken and- iencesMblowp down. In the. town itself the railway .has suffered severely. The -roof of the carpenters' shop has been completely carried away, and the goods shed- partially, dismantled j while at the engine shed several' chimnejj 'stacks are down, 'and every «kylignt. h«a. been broken. In the. same locality Detective Campbell and family had f *n. . exciting experience, having to- abandj^i tfieir which, being an old building, was soon, partially wrecked. The' greater part of tho~ roof was carried into the Grey River, whil» nearly every window and door has been blown in. "i'fi-e cEaznsLg^o to {Jie furxsriixz-© -& considerable. Mawhera quay presents an unusual spectacle. Verandahs are down int all directions, while plate-glass windows' - have been scattered into thousands of frag-/ mente. At Thomas and M'Beath's drapery establishment a window, with glass three* eighths of an inch in thickness, was mown in. At present it is impossible to give anestimate of the damage sustained by shopkeepers, but it will be considerable, lit the residential portion of the town chimneys are down in all directions, hundreds of trees have been uprooted, ,even : roofs, have been bodily carried off houses. This afternoon, for instance, the whole of the) roof of a residence was lifted off andcarried over a building. 4oft high, and deposited on the verandah of another house quite 150 yards away. To indicate ;he terrible velocity of the wind at an early hour this morning, it may be mentioned that s movable hydraulic crane, weighing. 90" -tons*, on the Greymouth. wharf, was blown from: its coupling, and shifted a? distance of 30{t. Two derricks in the same locality wera smashed to. pieces. In the main streets are to be seen large quantities of debris,-, while sheets of iron, which are hurled about like paper; are sources of great, danger to pedestrians. . Several persons' Have sustained injuries, but none of a' serious character. A bush fire- started at Kaiata, and the wind- took the flames on to the residence of Mr Martin. The residence was com* pletely destroyed. The gale is now (4.30 p.m.| abating.

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