CYCLONE WRECKS FARM

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1028, 19 July 1930, Page 10

CYCLONE WRECKS FARM

STORM NEAR NEW PLYMOUTH Press Association NEW PLYMOUTH, Today. A cyclone plucked the roof from a barn, destroyed outbuildings and scattered debris of iron and scantling along a two-mile track when it swept up the Te Henui Valley into Mr. J. Hale's farm in Avenue Road, New Plymouth, yesterday afternoon. Jack Hale, junr., who was iu the shed when the cyclone descended, had a miraculous escape, the joist to which he clung being torn for his hands, while he was whirled round amid a hail of falling iron and timber. A piece of iron was carried about 20 chaius and fell on a high tension win e connecting the power station with the New Plymouth sub-station. It opened the circuit breakers and extinguished all the lights in New Pivmouth for about five minutes "Earlier in tho afternoon we had been cementing the floor of the cowshed,” said Mr. Hale, junr., "but had left that, and the three of us were working iu the shearing shed. This was a large building connected with the cowsheds by a smaller, roofed shelter. I left the other two to get tnv coat from the shed. I had just reached the far end of the shed when I heard a loud roar, which grew until with a sound like stones hitting the shed the cyclone arrived. I knew it must be a cvclone, so I caught hold of a post.

“The end of the shed began to cave in, and the roof was being ripped off when tho post began to leave me. 1 thought it time to go. The scantling twisted out of my grip and I made a dash for the shearing shed. When I was nearly there 1 was twisted round and nearly dragged off my feet Sparks flew from the corner of }he shearing shed, and it looked as if it was struck by lightning. I made another dash for the wooden gate leading into the shed, but I was blinded by a thick cloud of dust v,-hich blew through the open doorway of the shearing shed.” The damage on Mr. Hale’s farm has been estimated at £SOO, but no one injured. On the Frankley Road the farm of Mr. F. L. Bishop suffered. A large cowshed just completed was moved bodily off its piles. The storm then passed over the bush reserve, snapping off branches, uprooting trees and stripping foliage.