A TREMENDOUS GALE

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1920, Page 1

A TREMENDOUS GALE

MUCH DAMAGE CAUSED

(Per Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, May 27..

A tremendous south-westerly gale swept over the city at an early hour this morning, damaging trees, breaking overhead wires apd disturbing whole households by its extraordinary violence. A policeman on duty says the gale reminded him of the explosion of a big munition dump in France. Heavy gusts tore along the streets at tremendous speed, and to walk against them was all but ‘impossible. At 2.15 a.m., a break was discovered in the transmission lines of Lake Coleridge hydro-electric scheme, and it was 6 a.m. before repairs wore effected and current restored. .

. MrSkey, of tbe Government Observatory states that during the storm the barometer rose one-tentb of an inch in a few minutes, and the thermometer rose seven degrees in three or four minutes. He believes the gale had a record velocity for these parts. THE TUTANEKAJ BATTERED. The Government steamer Tutanekai, which left Wellington at 2 p.m. yesterday for Lyttelton, in order to bunker on her way to Oamnru, where she is to pick up 30 hospital patients for Nelson, struck tbe gale at 1.15 a.m. When opposite Contrary river the.ye.ssel was hit by tbe westerly gale with hurricane force, which later suddenly veered to a southerly again, hitting the vessel severely.

Captain Post stated it was the severest weather lie had experienced ,on the New Zealand coast. “I have done a lot of travelling round the South Sea Islands, and. the Indian Ocean,” he said, “but never before have I experienced anything like it. My chief officer, # who has travelled round the coast, too, for years, says the same thing.”