A SEVERE STORM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3315, 26 September 1917, Page 43

A SEVERE STORM.

(By Cable.)

- A strong south-easterly gale, with heavy rain, set in at Sydney on the 19th. Tho gale attained a velocity of 70 miles m hour and ; was accompanied by torrential rain. Jiig seas were running, and shipping had to seek shelter. Much damage has been done to property, and several business places in Sydney are heavy lasers through, windows being blown in. The tents at the military and volunteer camps were blown down wholesale during the night, and hundreds of men were in a sorry plight. A man at Glebe walked into a broken electno cable, and was electrocuted. , Telegraphic communication was disorganised. Tho galo was the worsb experienced for many years. Several people were injured by flying roofs. Hoardings and walls were blown down and trees uprooted. The small coasting steamer Nerong was sighted helpless at tho North Head, bufe later on was missing. Steamers were despatched in search of her. The steamer Canoribar, which arrived afi Newcastle, pioked up a lifeboat from' the steamer Nerong with 11 survivors aboard. Three others—the chief engineer, the cook, and a passenger—died from exposure during a 12 nouns' drift in a tempestuous sea. The survivors state that the Nerong left on Tuesday night bound for tho JMambucca River, and met the full force of the gale in the early hours on Wednesday. Th© vessel sprang a leak, and drifted within three miles of Catherine Hill Bay, where she foundered at midday on Wednesday. The' crew assisted each other into tho boat, and they wore picked up exhausted: at midnight. The cook and the passenger died in tho boat, but the engineer was lost when tho Nerong foundered. By the 20th the storm had blown Itself out,' and tho rain had ceased, but heavy seas were running, delaying shipping. The storm affected an area of wide extent. The full amount of damage ia unknown. Many houses and bu6ines3 premises were unroofed and damaged.