CYCLONIC STORM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19802, 18 May 1934, Page 8

CYCLONIC STORM

SEVERAL BUILDINGS UNROOFED NEW PLYMOUTH SUFFERS By Telegraph—Press Association NEW PLYMOUTH, May 17. Wind of cyclonic force swept in a narrow path across the back of New Plymouth at dusk this evening at the beginning of a heavy downpour of rain. Several houses and other buildings were damaged on the two miles of its track. The tornado struck the land at Moturoa, near the harbour, and travelled across the back of the town to Avenue Road. The beach house at Moturoa was severely damaged, and practically collapsed. At the public hospital on the hill several windows were blown in in one adult ward, and in the children’s ward several children in their cots were soaked with rain that followed hard on the wind. Part of the roof was lifted off Mr Eliot King’s house and a quantity of timber deposited on the verandah from another building. The cyclone seemed to reach its height on Avenue Road, where most of the roof of Mr Harding’s house was lifted off. Several power and telegraph poles in the track of the storm were smashed off, and for a few minutes the whole of the town was in darkness, and portions are still without light or power. At the height of the storm on Avenue Road a motor cyclist, Mr Raymond, was struck by a car when he was attending to the light on his cycle and was taken to hospital with a fractured thigh. The wind was strong all over the borough, but the damage was confined to one track. Many wireless aerial poles were snapped off and gardens suffered severely. Immediately the storm had passed, a householder who had lost portion of the roof of his dwelling, excitedly telephoned to the police, "My roof is blown off and my furniture is being drenched. What are you going to do about it?” he asked. A Narrow Escape. Death was narrowly escaped by Mrs J. Scoble and her baby when a house in Mill Road was wrecked by the tornado. They were sitting down, to tea when, with a roar, the wind descended on the house, tore the roof away and sent the brick chimney crashing down into the kitchen. Mrs Scoble suffered severely from an injured knee; probably it is broken. The baby escaped injury. Mr Scoble arrived home soon afterwards. Debris of the roof and walls and of a shed was carried a considerable oistance. and Mr Eliot King’s house, several sections away, was punctured in several places by flying timber. Two houses at Moturoa beach were practically unroofed and seriously damaged. They were occupied by Messrs Manning and Langman.