A CYCLONE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1655, 23 January 1906, Page 2

A CYCLONE.

£3OOO DAMAGE AT CHRISTCHURCH (Per Press ’Association.) Christchurch, yesterday. A heavy thunderstorm yesterday pre* ceded a violent squall of wind. Although this only lasted a few minutes it did much damage. Windows were blown in and gardens wrecked. The chief mishap, however, waßjhe collapße of a large portion of the Exhibition buildiDg. About two hundred feet was blown down. Much heavy timber was smashed. The disaster is not likely to delay the opening of the Exhibition, but from’the point of view of the contractors is a serious one. They have beau at work since November, and the damage represents the loss of a considerable portion of .tho work done. The cost of restoring the frame work to the condition in which it . stood yesterday will probably bo j£3ooo. The gale appears to have been something in the nature of a cyclone. It came up suddenly, presaged only by a mass of dark oiouds and a few peals of thunder. II lasted in full force three or four minutes at the most The Exhibit’on building, which was situated on a slight eminence, was entirely unprotected, and received the full force of the wind, which came from the south-west. The framewotk was about 400 feet long. Two hundred feot at the north end were wrecked. The heavy beams of the roof were smashed, and fell, carrying with them much of the walls and timbers to the floor below. Within a couple of minutes the framewotk that had outlined the graceful form of the building bad.be* come a mass of broken timber.

Happily no one was on tbo spot at the time, else loss cf Ha would almost certainly have occurred. Had the galo struck the building on working dayp, when 30 or 40 men were engaged in its construction, the accident would hardly have failed to have been the most serious in the history of Canterbury,