FIERCE STORMS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 79, 27 December 1937, Page 10

FIERCE STORMS

Heavy Damage Caused in N.S.W. Towns HOTEL PARTIALLY WRECKED Fierce storms did much damage in several parts of the State on December 9 and 10. Thte most destructive was a squall which swept for about 100 mlles across a section of the north-western slopes, at the rate of about 80 miles an hour, leaving a trail of ruin. Houses were unroofed, and old buildings were demolished. At South Grafton hundreds of windows were smashed, iron roofs were pierced, street trees were stripped of leaves vegetables and flower gardens destroyed, and power, telegraph and telephone lines were put out of commission by a fierce hailstorm. The storm isolated Grafton and all the North coast centres from Sydney and southern centres. Maize and otlier crops were damaged. At Sydney, two houses were 'struck by lightning. A large panel-beating works in the centre of Lismore was wrecked and a public hall at Ruthven was blown down. Towns in the direet path of the gale were Gunnedah, Manilla and Bendemeer, all of which sixffered heavy damage, Manilla faring worst. The storm struck Manilla withont warning. A large stone parapet on the Court House Hotel was dislodged, and 50 tons of masonry crashed down with such force that it passed through the first and ground floors and fell into the cellar. Three men who were in the bar were struck by falling debris and injured. » The proprietress, Mrs. Hirschberg, was trapped in her room on the top storey when the floor immediately outside her door was swept away. Three rooms and the hallway was demolished, and bar fittings and stoek in the cellar were destroyed. The damage is estimated at several hundred pounds. At Bendemeer the post office and many" residences were partially unroofed and afterward flooded. More than an ineh of rain fell in 25 minutes. At Kootingal, a few miles off the track of the tornado, 4in. of rain and hail fell in less than an hour. A large area was inundated, and there was 30ft. of water over the Limbri road, two miles from Kootingal.