TORNADO IN VICTORIA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2190, 16 October 1920, Page 4

TORNADO IN VICTORIA.

DAMAGE AT CTIILTERN. SYDNEY, Sopt. 28. There was uu extraordinary occurrence near Uhiltmi. a Victorian country district, last week, when a wind of Unn’fjo force arose and in a very short rime did great damage. Tlie wind arose suddenly in the afternoon. The air had hern .still and heavy. There came a, sharp breeze, the breeze became a, gale, and the gale in' a few minutes wa.s a howling tornado. The extraordinary feature was that the disturbance appeared most limited in its area. It moved along a track that was nowhere more (bun 100yds wide, Unfortunately the centre' oM.be disturbance passed fairly over tlie middle of the townsiiip of Chillem. The full force of the wind struck a lightly-built, frame house owned by .Mr Frank (Voss, in Albert road. It snatched liie roof off in if twinkling and carried it away. Then '.the whole structure was thrown from its foundations, carried smite varus, whom it then collapsed, a pitiful heap of ruins. .Mrs (Vos.- was in the bouse when the roof carin' off. She rushed outside just as tins whole structure began to move. She was caught by the wind, tin-own off her foot, and buffeted about, being severely bruised. AH the furniture was smashed. Ollier buildings in tlie town suftered b-idly. but not so severely. Many of. them were unroofed. For sonny minutes the air was full of living moling iron. “Tlie sky seemed to be full of aeroplanes,” said one man. Some of these sheets were picked up miles away from Chiltern._ Chimneys and trees came down in all directions. The people, of course, were terror-stricken, hut no one was seriously injured. Chiltern lies in the midst of a forest. After the gale subsided, in about an hour, the fores! showed a strange sight, A track from 50 to 100yds wide had been smashed through the' forest by the tornado. 1 roes along ibis track had I,cen cither blown down or stripped of their branches, but oilier.- mi either side of the track were pot’ damaged. , The phenomenon caused a complete, though not lengthy, interruption of the railway and telegraph communication in that part of the country.