STORMS AND FLOODS

Wairarapa Daily Times, 21 January 1933, Page 5

STORMS AND FLOODS

OVER WIDE AREA. AUSTRALIA SUFFERS. (Received Saturday, 11.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Described as the worst in 20 years, a storm lashed the Riverina district and parts of A’ictoria. Flood waters entered shops at Rupanyup. Many fishing boats foundered in a 40-mile-an-hour gale at Quecnseliff. Rain and busli fires were experienced in an uncanny jumble. While weary men fought blazing acres around Balranald, Rochester lay under a mantle of an inch of hailstones. About 4000 acres of grass' and crop and miles of fencing were destroyed in the Rheola district.

One of the severest and most devastating hailstorms in recent years swept the Inverill district, in north-west New South Wales, killing calves, sheep, rabbits and birds, and also caused heavy •damage to maize and fruit crops. Jagged hail, the size of golf balls, left cattle bruised and bleeding. A violent thunderstorm at Gympie, in Queensland, unroofed houses and sheds and'uprooted trees. Flocks of sheep were trapped by the storm waters and drowned. Seven head of cattle were killed by lightning. All lowlands are now under water, the Condamine River running bank high. Several bridges are submerged. Torrential rain was also experienced in many other centres. At Gatton, hotels, business premises and residences are flooded.

A wash-away occurred on the main line near Toowoomba and traffic is held up.

It is forty years since flood waters reached the level they did at Laidley, where water swirled through shops and homes, while cattle and miles of fencing were swept away. Water is five feet deep in the streets of the town. Roma suffered severely. Houses were unroofed and hundreds of sheep were drowned. The railway line is submerged in several places.