THE SOUTHLAND STORM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1101, 16 November 1883, Page 2

THE SOUTHLAND STORM.

The following is the statement of the man titone, who was with Mr Crisp when the latter was killed by lightning : —About 4.20 p m. we were standing in the shelter shed at Ellis road, waiting for the outgoing train. Mr Crisp was standing about 4ft inside the doorway, with his face to the south. I was close to him, but facing flic other way. T-ere had b?en numerous flashes of lightning, then a lull, when suddenly I felt a sensation as if my knees were drawn towards the head, a cloud came over my eyes, and I remember no more till I found myself trying to rise. My hands were cramped with a tingling sensation, and discolored. I called out to Mr Crisp, who was lying on his back about six feet away. I went close to him and in a few seconds he said, “Stone, I’m a dead man.’’ Another man who was in the building, got up and ran away and hid himself in a partially built house, but some ladies and children were huddled up in a corner, apparently stupefied by the shock. Mr Crisp was afterwards removed to the Hospital, but was then quite dead. Yesterday the news reached Inverc.»r : gill of two deaths having occurred from lightning at Forest Hill. Two daughters Kirlpatrick, settler, aged ten and eight years, were overtaken by a storm, and took refuge in a stable wnere some men had preceded them. The eldest girl st od in a doorway when the flash came and struck her, death being instantaneous. The other occupants escaped with a scorching, but the horse and dog were destroyed. At North Forest Hill, in the same district, a boy named McGregor, aged about fifteen years, was looking out of the door at the storm, when ha was struck to the ground and never spoke again. In another quarter six telegraph poles were shattered. Later particulars state that the rumors re deaths from lightning were well founded, although details were incorrect. It appears that when the storm was at its height Mr Turnbull, a farmer, two girls named Kilpatrick, on their way home fjorh school, and Mr Fraser, a farmer, took refuge in a barn of the latter in Forest Hill. They had uofc been long ihere when lightning struck the house, killing the eldest gild, aged twelve, and paralysing Fraser’s lower extremities and prostrating the other two. About three miles further east the son of Alex. Macgregor, farmer, went to the door about

the same time with a hammer in his hand and was struck dead. He was a youth of fourteen years. Several persons in the town state that they felt a scorching sensation while exposed to the storm. Mr Stem-, who was with Crisp when he was killed, had a very narrow escape, and is much shaken. The weather is still unsettled and sultry.