A RECENT THUNDERSTORM

Southland Times, Issue 17658, 16 February 1916, Page 2

A RECENT THUNDERSTORM

DISTRICT SETTLER GIVES HIS UNFORTUNATE EXPERIENCE. Conversing the other flay with Mr A. W. Tclfer, of Hillcrcst, Mataura island, one of the severest sufferers in this district by the thunderstorm on Friday afternoon, 4th inst.. a AVyndliam Farmer reporter gleaned some first-hand impressions of his unfortun:* e experience. “First sign of something unusual be ins about to happen, - ’ said Mr Telfer, was a deafening roar of wind, on top of which came vi\id flashes of lightning and terrible peals of tit under. It was quite impossible to go outside and face the storm during the brief time it lasted —some eight or nine minutes, I should judge. Rumps of ice 2ft in deptli heaped up on the exposed sides of my house; a 400 gallon tank which had run empty was filled and overflowing; and the surplus from the spouting was like a deluge. Tlte ice cut the oat and turnip stalks in my Holds as if I had gone through them with a reaping hook. It was a magnificent crop of oats, well headed, and standing (Ift high; and now the cows have been turned into it to eat it off. In my turnip fields four or five acres of very forward plants, thinned nine days before Christmas, were all cut down, and are now a patch of desolation. A similar fate befelt a fine clover field. In ray vegetable garden, the peas, onions,’ carrots, etc., were all topped clean off by tlie swiftly dropping ice. The only redeeming feature about the visitation is that weeds like thistles and tansy suffered as badly as the cultivated plants.” Mr Telfer, who estimates his loss at upwards of £2OO, added that his neighbour. Mr George Heath, is also a heavy sufferer, a 10 acre patch In a field of oats being practically destroyed. MiHeath also had lambs drowned in a swollen creek.