A STRANGE SIGHT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20556, 6 March 1935, Page 5

A STRANGE SIGHT.

Waterspout Causes Damage in Gully. DELUGE OF WATER (Special to the " Star.”) AUCKLAND. This Day. During a storm in the Wharepuhunga district damage was done by a watersprout in a gully on Mr N. M. Lethbridge’s estate. Normally, the gully, a long one feeding a small stream of water into the Puniu River, about three miles away, has a swampy area from one to two chains in widthtfor practically its whole length, and flax grew luxuriantly at several points. The deluge of water must, have quickly formed into something resembling a tidal bore, for in its progress it gouged out all the surface debris right down to rock bottom, rolled the scores of tons of matted vegetation into gigantic bundles, hurled them aside at intervals, and then plunged on its course. A stout seven-wire fence was smashed’ as if made of string, fence posts were snapped off, small trees uprooted, and standing green flax, eight to ten feet high,, was torn out by the roots and flattened as though a road roller had passed over it. In places, large totara logs that had probably been covered for a hundred years were laid bare. A strange feature of the storm is that the sides of the gully appear not to have experienced any unusual downpouF at all, and an area near by that was being ploughed in preparation for turnips was undisturbed. The damage done to fences and flax pour at all, and an area nearly that provision of a hitherto unsuspected sup- I ply of excellent totara for fence posts, j etc., and steps have already been taken 1 to split some of the logs. The gully referred to is some eighteen miles from Te Awamutu, and is part of the natural drainage system from the Panetapu Flock House Settlement.