STORM IN WAIKATO

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 1, 26 September 1921, Page 9

STORM IN WAIKATO

EXPERIENCES AT TE AWAMUTU. Te Awamutu was enveloped in a brief thunderstorm of unprecedented severity last Monday evening, as briefly reported at. the time by the Press Association. Additional details show that following in tho wake of the Showers which broke tho dry period, the electric outbreak arrived at about 9.30 p.m., and shook the town with a series of discharges. The thunder, as one soldier described it, resembled “the- shelling of a village at close range, 5 ' and the flash and the roar were almost simultaneous. It seemed to strike,the very roofs. Several people to ■whoso houses electric wires have been installed report the blowing out of plugs or a vision of a groat ball of light. Mr. R. Gibson, who has some knowledge of electrical mechanics. and has electric light installed In his residence -opposite tho .Anglican Church, took out the two fuses after the first clap of thunder to disconnect the lines. After' waiting and thinking the worst of the storm was past, ho replaced tte plugs, his .children watching him. TTnrdly had he done so than the second heaviest thunderclap sounded, with its blinding sheet of lightning, and a flame shot out from Mr. Gibson’s fuses for a yard in his direction. . The fuses were smashed to pieces, and fell nt hlB . f^ t N On examining tho pieces he found the white porcelain had been copperplated around each point where the copper wires had touched it, the fierce heat of the current having splashed it. as « were, with liquid copper. Heavy rain at times fell during the storm, and three-quarters of an inch was recorded ns the note’s dipynpour. The electric light service at Cambridge was also affected.