ELECTRICAL STORM AT SEACLIFF

Southland Times, Issue 24575, 25 October 1941, Page 3

ELECTRICAL STORM AT SEACLIFF

HIGH TENSION FUSES BLOWN Five 11,000-volt transformer fuses, and seven of 6000 volts, were smashed to fragments in sub-stations of the Otago Electric Power Board between Palmerston and Waitati when a severe electrical storm, with three major flashes of lightning, passed along the coastal belt in this area about 2 o clock on Wednesday afternoon. Transformer fuses are hollow glass tubes about Ift long, three-quarters of an inch wide, and with a hollow core about Jin. wide housing the electric wire. ... Only high-tension electrical installations suffered during the storm, but no transformers were damaged, and houses, which are served by lowtension wires, were not affected, apart from having the power disconnected while new fuses were being inserted. The electrical storm appeared to be centred over Seacliff, and after half an hour the storm moved seawards. At the. height of the storm Seacliff was pounded by a hailstorm in which the hail was of the diameter of a sixpence. This storm lasted about 15 minutes. The damage caused by the electrical disturbance was that two 11,000-volt fuses were blown at the Waikouaiti sub-station: two of the same type were smashed at Waitati; and also two of 6000 volts on Mount Cargill, as well as a similar number on the Kilmog. One fuse of 6000 volts was blown out at Seacliff, and two 6000-volt circuitbreakers were damaged on the branch line from Waikouaiti to Totomai. Power was cut off from about 700 residents in the districts affected for periods varying from 20 minutes at Waikouaiti to two hours at Waitati.