WATERSPOUT OFF SHORE

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1933, Page 4

WATERSPOUT OFF SHORE

WHIRLWIND LIFTS A ROOF

DAMAGE DONE IN STORAGE YARD.

NEW PLYMOUTH VISITATION.

MATERIAL CARRIED DISTANCE,

Almost a year ago the New Plymouth Sash and Door Company’s yard suffered a fair amount of damage from a* whirlwind, being practically the only place in the town to suffer. Again, on Saturday morning, -hcrtlj i.fter 4 o’clock, a severe whirlwind centred the full blast of its fore? on the company’s Gill Street storage yard. The ph rorienon was probably a continuation of a waterspout. About 4.20 a.m., just after daybreak, a man standing in Gover Street at its junction with Courtenay Street heard a roaring sound. Looking out to sea he saw a huge upright cylindt of water rapidly approaching the shore. As it neared the coast it disappeared behind intervening buildings, but almost immediately there was a loud lashing noise, as though the great volume of water was being dispersed on striking the rocks. According to the reporter’s informant it seemed that the whirlwind arose from the wrecked waterspout. Shortly afterwards, in the uncertain light, he saw an object like a sheet of iron spin through the air, and then he noted the disturbance of objects on the route of the whirlwind as it passed across Courtenay Street, which it reached at a point eastwards of th- fire station. “Even where f was standing, I could fee 1 the draught from the whirlwind as it passed on inland,” he said. In the .zords of an employee of the New Plymouth Gas Company who was on duty at the time, there was first a torrential downpour ceasing at dawn, when the sky completely darkened and the whirlwind, broke with great force. It ripped into pieces a storage shed in the Sash and Door Company’s yard and whirled them high. A few minutes and it had ceased, giving place to another heavy fall of rain. This lasted but a short while; the sky cleared and conditions were again normal. An Idea of the whirlwind’s force may be gained from the fact that 50 yards of the storage shed roof was lifted and sections 20 feet square with 10-ft posts were blown across the Gas Company’s premises and into Newton King Ltd.’s stockyard. A shop verandah in Devon Street was the repository for other roofing iron whirled over a whole block. 'Flying and falling timber and iron snapped telephone cables in the vicinity, while stray smaller pieces even found their way on to the Fire Brigade station at the comer of Liardet and Courtenay Streets. Comparatively few people were aware of the whirlwind, which came when most persons were deep in sleep.