Alarm at Greymouth

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 291, 7 December 1929, Page 9

Alarm at Greymouth

CYCLONE AND WATERSPOUT ROOFS TORN OFF HOUSES [ Per Press Association ] GREYMOUTH, Dec. 6. Greymouth was this evening visited at about 7.30 p.m. by a cyclone and waterspout, which came from the sea directly eastwards, with a width of from four to five chains. After passing over Blaketown and the lagoon, the cyclone crossed Cowper, High and Shakespeare Streets, leaving in its wake a trail of damage. In Blaketown five houses, together with the outhouses, were seriously damaged, the roofs being blown off in each instance. Quite a number of chimneys were damaged. The waterspout was observed by many people as it crossed the lagoon. The wind, on reaching Cowper Street, lifted the roof of a new bungalow and carried it across the town into the hills to tho eastward. Pour or five other houses between Cowper Street and the hills had their roofs more or less lifted, while the electric and telegraphic wires were dislodged along the track of the cyclone. The whole electrical current of the town, momentarily, was interrupted. There was great alarm caused amongst residents within a certain distance of the storm’s course, as it was accompanied by a loud roaring and a stream of floating sheets of iron, timber and other debris. The waterspout does not appear to have wrought any destruction, but it presented an awesome spactacle as it was seen arising out of the ocean.

The weather has been wet and boisterous for a long time past but the storm came without warning. The scene of destruction, attracted people thither in large numbers. It is fortunate that the cyclone’s track was not a little further to the northward, as it would in that case have passed over a much larger number of structures. At the time of the earthquakes, a cyclone took a similar course.

No estimate of the damage is yet possible, but it is not expected to prove very considerable.

No estimate of the damage is yet possible, but it is not expected to prove very considerable. The continued adverse weather has prevented shipping movements here.