TERRIFIC STORM

Southland Times, Issue 21000, 5 February 1930, Page 6

TERRIFIC STORM

FIJI HURRICANE WHOLE COUNTRYSIDE DEVASTATED BUILDINGS LAID WASTE (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, February 4. i An account of the damage wrought by the recent hurricane in Fiji was given by the Ven. Archdeacon W. J. Hands, vicar of Suva and Archdeacon of Fiji, to-day. The storm lasted two days and for sixteen hours the wind blew at the rate of 120 miles per hour, devastating the whole countryside at Lambasa, on the island of Vanua Levu, which is the centre of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company’s operations, hundreds of people being employed, and where the headquarters of the Church of England Indian Mission is situated.

The wind was accompanied by heavy rain and the river rose rapidly, flooding all the surrounding flat lands to a depth of seven feet. The mission school and the dispensary were laid flat by the wind and the timbers carried away by the rushing water. Nothing remained except the concrete floor of the latter and a few piles. A piece of four-by-three timber went straight through a cow.

All the houses are to be rebuilt, 20 men having gone from New Zealand to do the work. The damage to the Church of England Mission property is estimated as between £2OOO and £3OOO and an appeal will be made by the Board of Missions for the repairing of the damages.