FREAK STORM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 2, 4 January 1939, Page 8

FREAK STORM

A NARROW BELT

NUMBER OF CHILDREN HURT

BUILDINGS SUFFER

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, December 30. In a freakish storm which lasted only three minutes and left a trail of wreckage a quarter-mile wide in a strip of closely-settled suburbs. 18 persons were injured and damage estimated by the police at £200,000 was done. The strip of affected territory included parts of the suburbs of Newtown, Enmore, and Marrickville, and had a total area uf about a square mile. ( During an electric storm which preceded the wind, Walter John Partridge, 24, was killed by lightning while surfing at Cronulla, about ten miles from, the wind-stricken area. . The wind reached a vtfpcity of ioo miles an hour, but less than half a JAiJ* away its velocity was only 30 miles an hour. More than 106 .bouses, facj tories, shops, and sheds were unroofed or smashed down. Sheets of iron j wrapped themselves lik* paper round I houses and poles. Mans- people were trapped and knocked down by flying debris. At least 100 families had to leave their homes because plaster and bricks had smashed their furniture to pieces and the residences were unsafe. CAME WITHOUT WARNING. There was little or no warning of the disaster—only a'quick gathering of black clouds, a burst of rain and haily then a roar of wind, and the collapse of buildings. Trees in Enmore Park were snapped off as though they had\ been screwed round and broken. The wind appeared to come from the west, then abruptly to veer to all points of the compass. Within half an hour the sun was shining brightly from a blue sky. In the stricken 'area huge raindrops preceded large hailstones and in less than a minute the hail was so thick that for a few minutes vision was restricted to a few yards. Before the hail ceased, the wind came with a roar. and struck Marrickville, Enmore, and Newtown districts. Other parts" of Sydney merely had a normal summer thunderstorm. i It was almost incredible that such damage could be done in so brief ft. time. First, the rear of a picture show and all the windows collapsed, smashing down portion of an adjoining milk bar. While galvanised iron from .these places was being hurled skywards, a large store was struck and the whole of the roof crashed down so suddenly that five employees barely had time to escape. Rushing on with an alarming roar. the. wind ripped roofs from houses and shops and hurled them away with terrific force. Electric * wires were severed and as they struck the road there were, loud explosions and showers of sparks. CHILDREN SUFFER IN PARK. In Enmore Park, scores of children were playing When the storm broke. As the hail began many tried to reach cover, but they were knocked down by sheets of galvanised iron and other wreckage hurled through the air. Trees were~torn down and-within a few seconds a dozen children were lying bleeding in the park. One ambulance wagon, in the charge of Officer V. Russell, picked up six injured children in the park, but Russell did not realise that his son, Noel, had been hit by galvanised iron and knocked down as he was attempting to gain" shelter. Young Russell fell into a gutter where storm water pqured over him. Another ambulance officer picked him up and rushed him to hospital, but the boy's father continued his work until the whole -the injured had received attention. He spent the rest of the evening and night at his son's bedside after doctors had operated on Noel for a depressed fracture of the skull in an effort to save the boy's life. MATERNITY HOME VISITATION. The fury of the storm struck a Salvation Army maternity home in Marrickville with such force that a glassedin balcony was shattered and glass showered over expectant mothers who were waiting on the ground floor of the home. • The roofs of the sterilising room, obstetric ward, and operating theatre were ripped off, and the hot water tanks were torn from their fixtures and hurled across the yard. In the obstetric ward a patient w«« being attended by a nurse. Anothet patient was in the operating theatre. Two other mothers with their babie* were in the adjoining lymg^irnward. As the roof disappeared,and ram and hail poured in, on the patients, nurses and workmen endeavoured to rescue women and babies before they wer« struck by flying debris. The expectant mothers were carried to othe* parts of the hospital, drenched by ram and battered by hailstones, and^ toe hours later one of them gave birth to a baby boy. '■*,'_* • _> Hundreds of other incidents, som» tragic, some humorous, were reported.