SWEPT BY CYCLONE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16679, 28 February 1920, Page 10

SWEPT BY CYCLONE.

, DEVASTATION AT CAIRNS. TERRIBLE NIGHT OF TERROR. The cyclone which struck Cairns, in ihe northeifu part of Queensland, on the evening of February 2, was of a most violent description, and did damage est imated at £580,000 in that ..town aione. The whole of the surrounding district suffered almost as severely, says the Auckland Herald correspondent.

If the residents had had any warning much Joss might have been avoided, particularly along tlio waterfront. The meteorologists discovered ‘ what was browing on -Monday evening, and sent out urgent warnings, but somehow the message did not roach Cairns until 11 p.m., when it was too Into to warn the townsfolk. The latter might have noticed it for themselves, however; the barometer suddenly fell to 9.17—a sure sign of a cyclone in those latitudes. At 2 a.in. the town was dark and asleep. A few minutes later the wind rose with appalling rapidity and force. It boomed, .then it roared, and then it shrieked and howled. At 2.30 there was a light in every house, and the people clustered helplessly together in vcnor. The hollow of the tempest increased in intensity every minute. It drowned all independent .sound and movement. One could not walk against it —those who tried were bowled over at once. Trees, chimneys, telephone poles, and buddings began to fall before the gale. Roofs camo away in every direction ; there was a constant crash of bursting windows; the air was full of (lying fragments. The police and ambulance men, assisted by many volunteers, worked very gallantly, rescuing people from collapsed houses and all sorts of perilous situations. MOSQUITO FLEET DESTROYED. The wind rose to the incredible force of 100 miles an iiotir. and sweeping the sea over into the town, brought now terrors. The retaining wall collapsed unitor the battering of a fearful sea, and water rushed across into the town. Houses were flooded—many collapsed; while havoc was worked in the harbour basin. The oak log industry is an important one in the Cairns district, and there acre large rafts lying in tho basin seasoning—about £9OOO worth altogether. Tho maddened sea burst these rafts apart and tin? logs began to churn around the basin, and every craft of any kind, including a large number of motor-boats, was crushed tml sunk. Cairns is tho headquarters of quite a largo mosquito fleet, and the damage done was enormous.' The haruour works—beacons, piers, walls, harbourside buildings—are almost completely wrecked. Mere description can convey little idea of what the conditions in the residential area were like during this period. Tim people from damaged houses fought their way through the •storm fo safer places; and this terrorstricken migration' became accentuated when the sea broke into the lower part of the town. The tempest had extinguished most of the street lights, and tho trembling refugees had to struggle as best they could through tho dark. A belief that the town was about to be engulfed by a tidal wave—a belief -due to the roar of the sea and tho flying salt spiay—did nothing to lessen their terrors. Tho men doing rescue work collected women, lost children, invalids, and aged persons at the police ami ambulance stations, and there gave them what help was possible. MANY GALLANT RESCUES. There were tnapy bravo rescues. A girl saw a young man overwhelmed and badly wounded by flying glass. She dragged him into her house, rendered first aid, and then went out through the storm in her nightdress and brought help. The hospitals were overwhelmed by an inrush of persons suffering various kinds of injuries, mostly cut and broken limbs, and a complicating factor was the premature birth of several babies during those hours of terror. There were no deaths, but many extraordinary escapes. A fisherman was caught; in a'launch some miles out. He fought through tho storm for hours. Then his launch sank, and ho swam, with the gale, for three miles, and just managed to struggle ashore. Daylight revealed a scene of devastation. A great number of buildings had collapsed, many more were unroofed.' The sea front and tho basin were completely wrecked. There was not a window of any size loft intact. Trees had fallen in every direction, doing great' damage. Tho telegraph and telephone services were in a state of chaos. The gale did not slacken much with daylight, but with darkness the worst terrors departed and the people turned as best they could to reduce the work of the cyclone to order. But the tempest still raged, and even late in the afternoon it was not possible to walk about; one bad to rush from shelter to shelter between the gusts. OTHER SMALL TOWNS SUFFER. All the little towns in the district of which Cairns is the outlet suffered similarly. Communication is gradually being restored. It appears that in some places, like Port Douglas, to the north, and Molloy, to the north-west, have got scarcely a building left intact. One bouse is left standing in Molloy, and perhaps a dozen in Port Douglas, which, normally, is a flourishing place. _ Many persons have been severely injured, but except for a scrub feller, who was drowned, there have been no deaths. The storm, of course, was accompanied by torrential rain, aud all the rivers sprang suddenly to high flood. Railway bridges were washed away, and most of these little centres were thus completely isolated for days'. , The people have asked the Government for help, but are themselves setting vigorously to vvork to restore their property. They take these things philosophically. One must, when one lives in tho cyclone belt.