BRISBANE’S CYCLONIC STORM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2205, 20 November 1920, Page 1

BRISBANE’S CYCLONIC STORM.

SOME TERRJEYING EXPERIENCES.

Svdnev, Get. 2G

Two or three times every year the North oi‘ Queensland is visited by violent cyclonic storms, which are frequently attended by great damage and loss of life. But- the southern pari of the Stale is generally free. One sueh visitation, however, struck Brisbane on Sunday, and the people- are not likely to forget the experience. Various plate-glass windows in the shopping area were demolished by the tierce wind. Chimneys jvere torn down, and the roofs of the (bivenimeni Printing Office and the Colonial Sugar Refining Company's big factory were swept away.

One man was killed. The sudden, sharp storm caught a small party of men who were playing cricket, and they foolishly rushed for .shelter under some trees. The trees were struck hy lightning, and one of the-young men was killed instantly. Another was struck by the electric fluid, and paralysed. He lost the use of his legs for some hours, but eventually recovered. Forty children were gathered in a hall, attending Sunday school, in one of the suburbs. The hall was Jlimsily built on the high piles by which Queenslanders strive to keep the übiquitous ant at bay. The sudden gale lifted one end of this building high 'up, shook it, and dumped it down again. When it fell, most of the piles burst in through the floor, and partly collapsed. The confusion and terror among the children was beyond description, yet, marvellous to relate, they all escaped, serious injury.

Here is a typical experience. The

house of a man living in I lie suburbs was unroofed by the Jirst mad bursl of wind. The torrential rain which followed immediately Hooded the rooms, and one of the walls collapsed. A thousand gallon tank from a nearby house was thrown from its stand and went bumping and banging down the sloping street. Just outside the house, lightning struck the overhead electric cables in the street, and zigzagged along (hem, snapping three. The falling wire became entangled with a horse and cart belonging to a milkman, and the turnout was upset’and badly damaged. A covered-in railway truck in the vicinity was blown off the rails. The period of the storm was brief, but it may be regarded as having been sufficiently exciting.