CYCLONE IN SYDNEY.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LII, Issue 117, 8 July 1931, Page 3

CYCLONE IN SYDNEY.

GREAT DAMAGE. FOUR PERSONS KILLED. SYDNEY, July 7. As the result of a cyclone four' 1 people were killed and ifi injured, i A Bondi girl walked against a live wire and was killed instantaneously. A fireball spent itself in a street in Lane Cove. The seas were so rough off Sydney Heads and the entrance is so unsafe that six steamers were forced to stand off and spend the night in open water. These include the Japanese motor ship Sydney Maru, from New Zealand, and the inter-State steamer Ormiston, with 200 people aboard. All sailings were postponed. Throughout yesterday the gale’s force was rarely below 60 miles per hour and reached 68 at seven o’clock last night. Penpoints of the damage are as follow: A shoe factory was demolished at Erskinville, being struck by lightning. Twenty families left their homes at Gosford owing to floods. CAMPS WRECKED. An unemployed camp at Lidcome was washed away, and an unemployed camp at Happy Valley is a total wreck. A roof at Maronba was carried 50 feet and smashed its way inside a house. A mother and her baby vacated their home just as the back portion of their house at Waverley was smashed in by the gale. A chimney of the Hotel Sydney ! crashed through two adjacent buildings into the street.

A sidelight was decreased attendances at the city theatres. One did not give a performance as only a

single man was present at 7.45. The State meteorologist says that a slight abatement of the cyclonic conditions may be expected to-day. The weather will still be cold, with continued heavy rain and southerly gales. PATHETIC SCENES. Pathetic scenes almost beggaring description were witnessed at Happy Valley and Lidcome unemployed camps. In one tent, semi-conscious from bitter cold, was found huddled a father and three children. He was lying over his three children in a desperate attempt to keep them warm. Everywhere in the camp was pitiful devastation. Their rude tents were blown away. Women and children faced the gale, shivering and tearful. Aid was forthcoming and 14 mothers and 25 children were sheltered in Lidcome Town Hall. One family was rescued from an Undercliff home which had been flooded to a depth of four feet. Every suburb reports tremendous damage. Houses are unroofed and fences down. Torrential rain continues this morning.