WIND AND RAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 11 July 1929, Page 7

WIND AND RAIN

GALE AT AUCKLAND. BUILDINGS DAMAGED. AUCKLAND, July 8. A startling experience bel'ei residents of Fernleigh on the eastern outskirts of Wamku at about noon yesterday, a fierce storm from the north-east striking the locality and leaving a trail of destruction. Accompanied by a deluge of rain, a heavy gale lasting for about 15 minutes worked up to hurricane force for about five minutes. The width of the path of the storm seems to have been about 100 yards, and Mr F. Fitchett’s poultry farm, which was right in its track, suffered most. The large fowlhouse .and sheds were wrecked, and flying iron and timber from these badly damaged some fruit trees. One piece of timber was blown through a window of the homestead and broke some glass on the table inside. Pieces of iron were earned on to the power lines and interrupted tlio service. A telegraph pole fell across the* road and forced the lines over almost to the ground. The chimneys of Mr Fitchett’s house and that of Mr AlcEwan nearby were snapped off, and the front door of Mr McEwan’s house was blown in and broicen.

The New Zealand Co-op. ftairy Company’s large butter factory at Fernleigh also suffered. One skylight was torn off and the glass in others broken while some tiles were stripped from the roof and others loosened. Empty cream cans on the delivery stage were caught up and carried some hundreds >f yards. The shaft of a chimney at the bachelors’ quarters was also displaced. Haystacks in the path of the rtorm were stripped of their coverings, nd for a quarter of a mile or so trees were shorn of their branches and in daces snapped off. Air W. J. Wright, whose homestead is near the butter factory and appears to have been on the edge of the path made by the storm, states that tlfe force of the wind was terrific. For a few minutes he feared that the side of his house would ''e blown in; the rain was so heavy that one could not see for more than tbout 100 yards. No one* was injured, 'lilt Air Fitchett lost several of his fowls, but other livestock appears to have escaped injury.