AUCKLAND BATTERED

Chronicle (Levin), 21 April 1947, Page 8

AUCKLAND BATTERED

—press Asspciation

Severe Electrical Storm > ; Causes Damage

By T&l^gravn-

AUCKLAND, Aprii 20, ' While rain fell in torrents at the rate of about an iu-eh an hour. a vivid. eleeIrieal storm raged over Auckland for nxore than three hours on Saturday niglit. Breat shegts of lightning arpeo between "the . tips of dripping cuniulo nMiibus clouds, illuminating the whole of the city witli a hluish flare of flashlight iniensity that often lasted for neariy three secouds. it was one of the most speetaeular and proionged displays ever seen in Auckland and one that, e-ven in the distance, attracted at tention at Thames and Coromandel. The rainfall over "the 24 hours was over fi-ve inches, the fourth heaviest ever reeorded in Auckland. The whole of the city 's transpovt ser vices was dislocated when the storm reaehed its height. Unable. to coge with Lhe tremendous rush of water, drains overflowed and manholes were lifted by the pressure in the sewers and^ fountains rose in the middle of the streets to. add to the cascades sweeping down the gutters. For motorists every hollow in the suburbs was .a hazard. Up to 3 feet; of water lay in scores of low lying seetions of roadway. Urnvary drivers found themselve.marooned in these lakes with useless engiues and with the water axle deep or even encroaching w.ell above the floorboards. On the New Noith Road half a dozen vehicles weye marooneo under Morningside tunnel. Others were halted indeliuitely and disconsplately in the vicinity of the Moiint ALbert Bor ough. Council ofiices and at one o'cloek this morning dozens of cars were heav ed and pushed to higher ground. On«. youth had then earned over £2 in .tip^ from motorists who were looking toi manpower to help them out of theii diffieulties. Daylight saw- the suburb.sprinkled writh temporarily useless motor cars that had been abandoueu overnight by their owners. The lightning w'as respoiisible for a number of interruptions to the powea services. The country districts escaped with a few locai interruptions caused by blown transformer fuses but in the suburbs 1-9 transformer banks were put out of actiou for 'varying periods from half an hour to several hours. Remuera, Greenlane and Mangere w^ere alfected and in Onehunga many consumers were without power for six hours from 4 p.m. as the result of dainage to a trans former. Many thousands of pounds worth oi damage was done to roads, -buildings, houses and stock and floor coverings in dooded Queen Street shops. On Water r'ront Road at Orakei luO feet of sea wail fell nito the uuo taning with it a strip of footpath. A 15-foot wide sjip on Mount Hobson crushed the tram waiting shed in Remuera Rbad at 11.15 last night and blocked one side of the road to mot'or traiiic. Five people wait ing in the slied heard the slip coming and fled to safety, The earth was washed from undei the s outhbound r'ailvvay line near New market. station. Part of a footpath in Newmarket was washed into a gully. Coastal shipping was held in port at Auckland by the rain and several ves sels remained at outports during the weekend through stress of weather. No damage was ropo'rted to craft on the VVaitemata although the Wofk's Department schooner Tagua, , lying at anehor in the stream fully-loaded witli a cargo for the Solomons, flew a dis tress signal when she began to drag eariy on Saturday af^emoon. A second anchor and more chain were put out and the schooner was secured. The de parture from Auckland of one overseas ship, the Cressington Court, for Fremantle was postponod 24 hours un til this morning. , Messages from two passenger ships at sea northeast of New Zealand, indicated that they were onlv on the fringe of the disturbance. The New Zealand Shipping Company 's llner Rimutaka whieh. left Auckland on Thursday fp.' Londpn:,- via-Paham^, e?tperieu_cing overcast skies.. and'a liglit- ca'stcVfy winti on Saturday night. Tlie Union Com pany'a passenger motor ship Matua whieh left here on Saturday for Suvn was 330 miles out when she advised 1 that she was meeting very rough seas, a 23-mile an hour wind and clear skies The storm was caused by the move ment of an intense low towards the north west of New Zealand. At noon on Saturday an extensive atea of low pres sure wa§ centred 250 miles nortliwest of Nortjr Cape and a frontal disturbance associated with it moved over the North Island on Saturday afternoon and night. This afternoon the centre of the low was 50 miles west o.f Nortli Cape and had yet to move over tlu* Domininn. "High winds 011 Saturday morning preceded the passage of the front and at 10 a.m. velocities in the upper air, measured from Whenuapai, reaehed 00 miles an hour at 2000 feel and 85 miles an hour at 3000. In the city area surfaee winds reaehed theiT greatest strength averaging from 30 to 35 miles an hour with many gusts ranging as high as 53 miles an hour. By late afternoon the rainfall had reaehed its greatest intensity, 1.25 inches beina measured at the -weather office at Mechanie's Bay between 4.30 p.m. and 5,20 p.m, The fall lat.er at njght was almost as great,.for a short period. Bv nigjitfall the towering clouds were be ginning to reaeli the Auckland area and with them cajne reverberating thunder and the most extensive display of lightning seen fpr many yeaj's. Most of the lightning was,. caused by discharges be 'twepn the tops of clouds and little forked lightning between eloq4 and grpund oecurred. As the Waitakere streams gained im petus, Auckland 's store of water in creased in the day-by 300,000,000 gal lons, bringing the total in the three dams to about 1,500, 000,000 gallons Two of the dams. are now fillcd and with the streams that form the main source of supply likely to run strongly for seyeral days, the tliird will also probably reach its capacity. , Telegraph an4 trunk telephone eircuits were not serionsly affieefed and radio programmes continued exeept for

m.omentar.y breaks in transmission caused by- burut-out fuses. However, the quality .of r.eeeptipn was greatly impaired and after hearing the lierce crackle of radio interference induced by lightning, most householders preferred ts> turn 0# their sets.