GALE IN CANTERBURY

Otago Witness, Issue 4048, 13 October 1931, Page 30

GALE IN CANTERBURY

WIDESPREAD DAMAGE REPORTED PLANTATIONS DEVASTATED. CHRISTCHURCH, October 11. A nor’-west gale blew with terrific’, force in the higher country throughout Canterbury and did widespread though minor damage to telephone lines and to the tree plantations right along the head of the plains from Oxford to well down into the Ashburton county. Fallen trees and telephone or power lines and damaged farm buildings testified to the unusual strength of the gale, and the slightly swollen rivers to the heavy rain which fell for hours in the hills. The gale blew from about 11 a.m. until well into thenight, but attained its greatest force during mid-afternoon, and it was at this time that most of the damage was done. On the West Coast the nor’-west wind, blowing in from the sea, brought extremely heavy rain, as it did on the mountains on the Canterbury side, and some of thisrain was blown down with the wind as far as Darfield, a rare occurrence during a nor’-wester. It was at Darfield, exposed to the full force of the gale, that most of the damage was done, and in big pinus insignus plantations many of the older trees were either uprooted or snapped off high up and thrown to the ground. Passengers on the West Coast train to Christchurch saw all along the lines from Cass evidence of the force of the gale, and in one plantation passed it seemed from a casual survey that every second tree on the most exposed side had been completely uprooted. There was an exciting incident during the height of the gale at Darfield when the Memorial Hall, in which a flower show was being held, began to shake so much that it was thought expedient to tie the building down with ropes. Many of the shingles of the roof were torn off and scattered.

In this part of Canterbury and, in fact, everywhere in the higher country, telephone wires and electric power lines were damaged, the wires either being broken by the sheer force of the wind or through falling trees. The strain was in many cases so great that the poles fell. At Darfield it was impossible to communicate by telephone with the outlying districts, and in the Rakaia Gorge district there was similar trouble, and at Hororata the residents were without power for lighting or cooking until this afternoon. Advertisement hoardings were blown down everywhere. The district telegraph engineer (Mr J. C. Fairbairn) stated last evening that a considerable amount of damage had been done in Ashburton, Hinds, Mayfield, and Springburn districts to subscribers’ lines. Serious trouble had been experienced on the West Coast line between Arthurs Pass and the Bealey, but communication with the West Coast was restored to-day. The telegraph lines had not been affected. An intense thunder storm was experienced at Lake Coleridge, where lightning and fallen trees interfered with the power lines to the city. The supply lines were repaired by afternoon. FIERCE GALE IN MID-CANTER-BURY. . ASHBURTON, October 10. A north-west gale, said to be the most violent since October, 1914, raged throughout the county to-day. Many power and telephone wires are down and great damage to plantations is reported. Motorists had many narrow escapes from falling trees and wires. In one instance a cow was killed by the snapping of a wire. Newly-sown paddocks have been denuded of soil. There are no signs of the gala abating.