THE SYDNEY STORM.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 April 1927, Page 1

THE SYDNEY STORM.

1 GALE DAMAGE. Australia & N.Z. Cable Assoc ation. i SYDNEY, April 20. The gale accompanied by heavy rain i continues and further damage to pro- : petty has been reported. There are I few houses and buildings in the city I and suburbs that have not received - some damage. At Enfield it is csti- : nutted the velocity of the wind was one hundred miles an hour, houses were unroofed and danige is estimated at seven thousand sterling. Residents of .Manly are in serious plight. Owing to the heavy seas the ferry service lias teased and train service failed. Buses are the only means of transport. Huge seas are running at Sydney Heads. Only two steamers. Comorin and Moreton Bay, went out yesterday. A further warning to shipping nas been issued by the weather bureau. H states the centre of the cyclone is between Lord Howe Island and Newcastle moving eastward. The port ot Newcastle has been closed for shipping since .Monday. Exceptionally heavy seas are now running. Lighthousemen state they have seen nolle worse for many yea rs. It is reported from Windsor that Hawkcsbury River is rising raipdly. •Several bridges have been washed away and much land is inundated. Valuable vegetable gardens are ruined. In Sydney from nine on Thursday morning to nine last night 10111-teen point sixty-two inches of rain were registered. At Port Kemhla tin- sieamcr Baron Ardrosxan just arrived from New Zealand and had a narrow escape from destruction in a fierce squall, when with the anchors dragging badly the windlass broke and she was drifting on to Hie breakwater but good seamanship and a- ful bead of steam saved her. She received a severe buffeting crossing the Tasman. STORM EASING. SYDNEY. April 20. The storm is easing. The rain lias ceased, but the weather is still gloomy and threatening. BURST UMBRELLAS. SYDNEY. April 20. A sidelight of the storm is the report of the rubbish men that during the past two or three days the collection of the number of hurst umbrellas constitute a record. BOTANY BAY DEATH ROLL. SYDNEY. April 20. Besides the three bodies found at Botany Bay yesterday, five more men and one woman were discovered to-day entangled amid the wreckage thrown up bv the storm. They are believed to have been members of a launch party which left Kurncll for La Pe-i-ouse on Monday afternoon. Owing IO the heavy sea then running, the regular launch wa> not plying, lull as about some dozen persons were desirous to cross, a boatman. George Ansell, undertook the journey with eight men and one woman. So tar none ol the bodies lias keen identified. Tbe roughness of the sea between Kurnell and La Perouse prevented any communication since .Monday, so that details are lacking. SYDNEY. April 20. Another victim of the Botany Bay launc h tragedy has boon identified as .Tames Jarvis. SYDNEY. April 20. Three of the bodies found in the wrec kage of the launch at Botany Bay have been identified as Peter Marshall, of Botany; William Lawson, of Kensington : and John Mecliie. of Kensington. When the first three bodies were discovered last night near the wrecked launch, the police dug sand out of the vessel, and then saw the name " Bronva,” painted nn the side. This was the name of the launch owned by An.sell. who left Kurnell for La Pomuse on Monday. The whole beach for nearly threequarters of a mile around where the bodies were found, is littered with splintered timber, camping utensils, and shreds of clothing, ft looks as it a fair-sized steamer had been wrecked. SYDNEY, April 20.

Reports from the country show there lire widespread floods, which are causing enormous damage. At Maitland the flood waters are well over the Sou ill Maitland railway. Many houses there are deserted, and all How-lying country is submerged. The river is still rising. Many residents of Oessnoek, before being driven from their homes, nailed their wardrobes, tables and other fuiiiituro high up on the walls, In pievent them swirling around the rooms when the flood waters entered, and thus they minimised their losses. STEAMER IN TROUBLE. SYDNEY. April ’2O. The steamer Mungana. which is hound from Ocean Island to Australia, has wirelessed that she is not in danger, but has asked that a tug he sent to her assistance. The freighter Mungana has wirelessed that she is helpless sixty miles from Sydney, owing to her rudder carrying away. The message added that there was a moderate wind and sea. and the ship had her head into the weather. A tug has been despatched to her assistance.

j HIP’S STERN STRUGGLE. SYDNEY. April 20. The police are experiencing great difficulty in identifying the Botany B*y victims. They state they arc amazed that so many people have been missing since monday without any inquiries by either relatives or friends. The residents of Kurnell, which has been isolated since Monday, are now running shorn of food supplies and efforts arc being made to establish communication through dense roadless scrub country. While the steamer Baron Andressan, was battling with the cyclone at Kem--I,la. from Friday until to-day. her engines were full on practically all the time. Although the vessel actually made no ground, the engine revolutions registered 235 miles, which she would have travelled under ordinary circumstances. Several times the vessel was within three feet of the breakwater and once she just touched, but a heavy squall from a fresh quarter just pulled her off. To-day the seas abated, and the cabled were slipped. The vessel reached Sydney, where she has docked. TELEGRAPHS RESTORED. SYDNEY. April 20. Most of the telegraphic communications that were interrupted by the storm have now been restored, and the traffic is practically normal, except in a few centres, where the lines are still down

SYDNEY, April 20.. The m’astor of the steamer Port Nicholson, which has arrived to-day from the scene of the stranding stated that only tugs would have a chance of getting the Riverina off the beach, where she is still lying broadside -on to the breakers. He added that owing to the mist the Gabo Island light might not have been visible for more than a mile at the time that the Rlveriiia went ashore. The tug St. Giles is reported to Ire off Shoal Haven Heads, and she will not reach the stranded vessel until to-morrow SYDNEY, April 21. Two more bodies have been recovered at Botany Bay, making the total 10 from flic lost launch. So far no more have been identified. The police have established that a party numbering ten or twelve, including one woman, were unable to leave Kurncll by regular launch and availed themselves of the offer by Aitsell to carry them over, and the launch, when it felt the full fury of the gale, was wrecked.

The. total death roll of the storm is now 17.