HAILSTORMS BATTER CROPS

Chronicle (Levin), 8 November 1946, Page 7

HAILSTORMS BATTER CROPS

—Press Association

^ SEVERE DAMAGE IN BLENHEIM

By Telearavh-

BLENHEIM, Nov. 7. " Twice within the past week violent hailstorms have broken over parts of the Awatere district, just south of Blenheim, eausing extremely severe damage to erops, garden produce and orchards. In both instgnces the disturbance was coiifined to a relatively small area — a fortunate* thing in view of its intensity and the sizo of the jagged fragments .of ice- which, on each oecasion, pelted down for just on 40 minutes. The latest storm ocCufrred' on Tuesday evening when, in the words of oue Tetley Brook reSident, at, ' ' swept down the valley like a black, wa.U ! ' ' Withip a few minutes gardehs were flattened, the insulation was stripped from power lines, pine trees were shorn. of . their needles on their exposed sides, and pea crops just eoming into flower were badiy damaged. . 0 Other pranks of the storm, which showered fhe .arQa to "> a -depfh > of. two iuches with hailstones "as' big as inoth balls, included the sh^edtling oi" onion tops, the stripping of fruit from trees, and the cutting of long grass as though it had been seythed. Gardens which a little while before had been flourishing looked as though they had been battered with sticks. House gutters were totaily unable td eope writh the dcluge, gauges Showing a fall of just on an inch for the 41) minutes. The result was that iu several instances water, tinted with tlie colour 'of the paint which had been cliipped from the roofs, overflowed into thej walls, damaging the inleriors of rooms. ! Beveral days before 200 acres of peui crops in the Seaview area, flear Sed-i don, were cut to pieces by a pheno-j menai liailstorm which broke over a; narrow coastal friuge and caused ex-j tensive damage on many farms du^ing the 40 minutes it was in progress. Thej peas, which represeuted the iinest crops j seen in the district for a number ot'j years, were literally slashed, in maui . mstances, to fragments, the ground be-' ing covered by the pieces. Wlieat crops i also took a battering, but altliough; these vyere flattened, thoy will recover.j The worst harm was caused in the' lirst few minutes, duriug which jagged1 lumps of ice as big as sixpeimv pieces,: pelted down and seut people and stock: hurrying for cover. The hailstones j were too large to find their way: through bird netting spread over garden frames, and they fell with suclt veiocity that, in oue. instancc, six ot'l eight hens' eggs ieft in a porch werej broken. After- the st^rm the localityj was mantled in white to an averagej depth of two or three inches,, _ withj some of the dril'ts of ltail up to ti fooli in depth. Garden produce had ' a rough lxand ling also, the foliage beiug brokeuj down and the fruit and lcaves stripped j from orchard trees. In oue case aj farmer was workiug with a horse team, and had barely suflicient time to turni the animals loose. before they stampeded for slieltor from the slinging barrage. " |