FIERCE STORMS

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1934, Page 5

FIERCE STORMS

QUEENSLAND'SWEPT FIREBALL DETONATION HAIL AND PIECES OF ICE MUCH PROPERTY DAMAGE FLOODING OF BUILDINGS By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright Brisbane, Dec. 28. Terrific storms yesterday caused extensive damage to property in scattered parts of Queensland. During a torrential downpour at Yandina, on the north coast, a fireball fell in a sugar cane plantation. The explosion shook buildings in the township and the occupants ox the plantation were affected by concussion and a dazzling white light. At Roma the roof of the powerhouse collapsed, plunging the whole town in darkness.

Pieces of ice fell during a hail and wind storm at St. George, in the Maranoa district, where a section of the State school buildings was wrecked. Other buildings were unroofed. Water overflowed the street channels, flooding business premises. All the streams in the Maranoa district are in flood.

Thousands of trees in the Geondiwindi area were torn up by the roots or snapped off. Graziers’ homes and shearing sheds were unroofed and outbuildings razed by the hurricane. Seven inches of rain fell in a few hours and the township of Yelarbon is isolated in a sea of water.

Telegraph lines are down everywhere and the mail train from Geindiwindi to Brisbane was delayed by trees which had crashed across the line.

Joseph Burke, a well-known pastoralist of the Warwick district, was drowned in attempting to cross a flooded stream on horseback.