DESTRUCTIVE WHIRLWIND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 06, Issue 100, 20 August 1943, Page 5

DESTRUCTIVE WHIRLWIND

KANGITAIKI PLAINS TRAVERSED COWSHED DEMOLISHED ' TREES AND OUTBUILDINGS LEVELLED Traversing the Rangitaiki i Plains in a wide arc running from in a sou-wester- ■ .ly direction through Edgecum- ■ be, Awakeri and portions of the K Te Teko districts a destructive ■ whirlwind 1 of great force develI oped yesterday afternoon at' I about 1.30 p.m. andi gave rise to I ■ considerable alarm as it snapped off trees and outbuildings - and. carried' them, high in the . air before scattering them over a wide area. Mr A. Penny's milking shed was -wrenched clean in half, the detached .portion being borne aloft some 30ft and carried across the road. Mr •Penny's son, Mr M. Penny who was working in the vicinity >aid : 1k v had * -never experienced anything so uncanny in his life. Heavy rain was falling, when his attention was arrested by a roaring noise from the north. A quarter of a mile away he ■saw a dark column approaching in which were ecklying limbs of: trees. Y~ pieces of corrugated iron and debris of all kinds, reaching at least 200 ft thigh. Before he had recovered from shis surprise, the cowshed seemed to lift bodily and with a splintering .crash half of it went, skywards. Blue Gum Trees Snapped Tall blue gum trees., sheds and. pig- • sties were demolished as the cyclone too'ic its path towards the Awakeri store where the vertmdah was ripped off like a piece of paperThe coursc of the whirlwind also led through a line of 10ft gums on JMr R. Hepburn's projjerty which •were snapped, oil' for a distance, of lour chains. Near Edgccumbe Mr Alex McLean •states that the whirlwind ripped o/F large .cabbage trees along a more •or less defined path little more than -a couple of chains in Avidtli. Pit cut through several belts of trees, liko. a giant bulldozer, and at one stage .-grazed the corner of his house so closely that boards were torn away. Large trees of'Mr Mr A. J. Hopkirk's' property were thrown across -a power main which cut the power off* from a .small) area. The power lines were also severed near Mr Jamiesoirs property through large trees falling across them. At Te Teko a similar path of destruction followed in the- waive of the phenomenon. Maize cribs were' -destroyed and sheds levelled. Fortunately no houses were damaged. Eye. witnesses from all parts of the Plains describe the uncanny, effect of the miniature water spouts which "were raised by the >core of the wind -when drains or sheets of water were traversed. In some instances thesa shot. 100 ft in the air. , Two Whirlwinds Suggested So widely separated were tht points of damage that it has been suggested there were two visitations, with a half-hour interval between, one which travelled across the northern section of the. Plains ■and one which took a more southerly course. In either ease the damage was limited to shelter belts of trees and farm buildings. Apart from the Awakeri Store, no damage to houses has been reported. The Bay of Plenty Power Board : reports that damage to the lines was limited fortunately to more or less isolated points only, but the -telephone system has been widely dislocated.