SEVERE STORM IN MELBOURNE.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 221, 23 February 1875, Page 3

SEVERE STORM IN MELBOURNE.

Melbourne was visited with a very severe storm on the 12th. The Argus says:—"About noon there were strong indications of a charge, and shortly after one o'clock a terrific storm of rain came on. So dense was the rain that in a great many places of business it was found necessary to light the gas. In a very short space of time Elizabeth street became the bed of a foaming yellow torrent that rose with such rapidity that few of the shopkeepers had time to put up the usual safeguards to keep the water out of their premises. The rain for some time fell almost like a cataract, and the main stream in Elizabeth street became so augmented by the strong streams which ran down every street, that all ordinary precautions were rendered useless, the water going over the bulwarks placed in the doorways, and in some places standing over a foot deep in the shops. In Swanston street the water was running across the road from pathway to pathway, and a good deal of damage was done by its getting into the cellars. At the Hobson's Bay railway station the sight was a very extraordinary one. Here all the streams were united in one grand torrent, that swept down Flinders street at a great pace, and all the way down the street as far the eye could reach nothing was to be seen but the rushing water As usual, in these sudden floods to which Melbourne is liable, there were numerous escapes from serious accidents. Cab horses became frightened when attempted to be driven across the main streams, and some were with difficulty saved from drowning. The trucks used by the street vendors of apples, lollies, &c. were in several instances swept away. In attempting to save one of these vehicles a lad named George Dike, about fifteen years of age, nearly lost his life. The truck was being carried by the flood down Lonsdale street, and when rear the corner of Swanston street, young Dike attempted to stop it. In doing so he got fast under the footbridge at Messrs Solomon's corner, and would have been drowned but for the prompt assistance rendered by a young man named Grey. For some time the latter was in a very perilous position, but eventually both were extricated, and not a bit too soon, for Dike was nearly gone, and Grey was a good deal injured. They were taken to the Melbourne Hospital. Grey soon recovered, and went home, but the lad Dike was so weak that he remained in the institution all night.