FIERCE WHIRLWIND

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1934, Page 12

FIERCE WHIRLWIND

CHRISTCHURCH EXPERIENCE. TWO PERSONS IN DANGER. White three persons were working in a paddock at Cashmere, Christchurch, this week; they were startled by a loud roar. Looking about them, they saw a whirlwind approaching. Boxes, straw and other litter and a coil of barbed fencing wire were being swept through the air. The three persons made a quick effort to shift all movable property. They were successful, but two of their number, one a woman, were caught in the middle of the whirlwind and almost dragged from a fence to which they clung for safety. „ Two of the persons were Miss M. R. Parker, who grows tomatoes in a paddock on the hillside facing port Hills Road, and Mr. G. R. Parker, her brother, who grows strawberries in a neighbouring section. They had with -them a man whom they employ. The whirlwind started in a paddock owned by Mr. J. Cox. The air had been perfectly calm, when the attention of Miss Parker and her brother was attracted by a loud roar. They saw all the litter in the air, and while Miss Parker rushed to a heavy motor-truck standing in the paddock and drove it out of the path of the disturbance, the others removed a horse and cart. Miss Parker then returned to her paddock and was about to look round for anything else that was movable when she was caught in the middle of the whirlwind. She grasped a fence but was almost torn away, and the employee, who went to her assistance, had the same experience.

When the whirlwind had passed by a huge cloud of straw, lifted from the strawberry paddock, was seen floating 100 feet in the air. Seed boxes were being carried along 40 feet high, and a heavy roll of barbed wire was lifted about 10 feet and carried from one paddock to another. Some of the. straw came to rest in neighbouring paddocks. More of it was scattered along verandahs and porches of houses and some of it actually entered the windows and littered the floors of various rooms. The house of Mrs. J. H. Michelle received a particularly large share of the straw. Mr. E. McCarrigan, who lives next door to Mrs. Michelle, had some panes of glass in his glasshouse shattered. After starting in Mr. Cox’s paddock, which is well up on the hill, the whirlwind went up the hill slightly, then swept down toward Port Hills Road, and then in another direction. It blazed a track through Mr.- Parker’s strawberries and flattened some of Miss Parker’s tomatoes, but did little other damage. People living in Port Hills Road and vicinity were frightened by the roar and by the intensity of the whirlwind and they considered they were fortunate not to have their properties damaged. About the same time as the whirlwind occurred, people living further round at Cashmere had what they described as an extraordinary shower of rain resembling a cloudburst. “It came without any warning and in large spots and with an intensity generally associated with tropical showers,” said a resident. It did no damage.