DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3765, 11 May 1926, Page 11

DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO.

A NELSON VISITATION. NELSON. May H A tornado confining itself to a narrow path, struck a portion of the city last night about 10 o’clock, and left in its wake considerable destruction to property. Fences were torn down, outhouses destroyed, and houses more or less damaged; while a large glasshouse was totally destroyed. Fortunately there was no loss of life, but some householders had what are described as terrifying experi enceß.

The tornado came in from the sea, its track being, roughly, from the northwestern corner of Wainui street in a south-easterly direction to Nelson Institute, Hard street, where apparently it spent s force. No othei parts of the town were affected, and as a matter of fact there was nothing outside the area to indicate that such an unwelcome visitation had occurred.

A stack of loose timber was hurled in all directions. One piece went through a bedroom window, showering the occupants with glass. At Milton Grove more destruction was in evidence, and here the premises of S. J. Stewart suffered most severely. Mr Stewart said he heard a noise in the direction of the sea shortly before the shock came and remarked that there was somethin happening at sea.. “The next second .t was upon us,” he added. His house and outbuildings looked this morning as if a severe earthquake had occurred. The verandah posts were wrenched off their supports at the bottom, and were hanging six inches clear of the boards. A large shed is resting at an angle and has been thrown off the perpendicular by at least 45 degrees. The iron was torn off the walls, the door was burst in and wrenched from its hinges and the window sashes were displaced A fowl house, 26ft by 12ft, was lifted bodily and came to rest upside down 50 feet away. Fences were also blown down and the garden was more or less damaged. It is fortunate that the track which the tornado followed was such a narrow one. Had it swept a wider area the loss to glasshouse owners would have been disastrous. A similar occurrence in Nelson cannot be recalled.