CYCLONIC STORMS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16428, 23 January 1919, Page 2

CYCLONIC STORMS.

« A SYDNEY VISITATION. (FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, January 8. This is the season of the year when cyclonic storms, or hurricanes, aro common to the South Seas, and this part of Australia is receiving an unusual share of them. Tho genuine hurrienno seldom appears south of Rockhampton, but gales of cyclonic forco have caused much damage in the past week or two in this State. Last Saturday, for instance, a storm which lasted only about fifteen or twenty v minutos burst with great suddonness over the eastern portion of this State. The brilliant sunshine ( was suddenly blotted out by masses of inky clouds, and rain and nail fell in great showers f literally within a few minutes. Little, if any, warning was given, and tons jof thousands of people were caught in the open. Tennis, cricket, and bowling matches were taken unawares, and spectators and players were soaked by rain and battered by onormous hail —hail with a temperature over 90! —before they could reach shelter. There were extraordinary scenes on the racecourses, where there was shelter for only a tenth of the people assembled. At first, there was a mad scramble for a roof, but when the* futility of it was seen, thousands just stood out in the deluge and the hurri-cane-like wind and laughed • at each other. What else could they do P_ At Kensington racecourse, when things wero at their worst, a large and much terrified black cat appeared out on the abandoned course, where it engagea in d frantic effort to dodge the pelting hailstones. Its tail, like a bottle-brush» it dashed around in a most comical manner. The soaking crowd roared with laughter, and forgot its woes. Of such is an Australian racecourse assemblage. The tens of thousands of siAfers on the beaches, although industriously seeking wetness, made helter-skelter for shelter when the storm broke, but fewescaped. Huge hailstones on bare arms and shoulders aroused protesting shrieks from the women and children, but few were hurt. At Bondi, however, a young married woman, surfing with her fiusband and child, was struck dead by one of the almost constant flashes of vivid - lightning. She had a large safety-pin in the back of her, bathing cap, and the lightning found this. Water everywhere poured through j weak roofs and unprotected cellars, and considerable loss was caused. In certain country districts, the hail fell in such masses that stock were buried alive in the drifts, and crops were completely destroyed. * - In Sydney, twenty minutes later, the clouds were gone, and the sun, beating down on the still warm earth, was I raising great clouds of steam. Such | is a typical summer thunder-storm along j the eastern coastal belt. ==