VIOLENT RAIN STORMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26626, 24 November 1947, Page 5

VIOLENT RAIN STORMS

NEW SOUTH WALES VISITATION FOUR KILLED IN SYDNEY Rec. 10 p.m. SYDNEY, Nov. 23. In violent wind and rain storms which struck Sydney and other partg of New South Wales yesterday afternoon, four people were killed, houses were unroofed, and damage estimated at £1,000,000 was done to Riverina wheat crops. Two brothers, aged 11 and 6, were drowned in Cook’s River canal in the Sydney suburb of Belmore. * They went down to the canal to see the flood waters after heavy rain, when the younger boy fell in. The other brother followed, and a man who was with them went to the rescue. The wall of flood water came down and all were washed away. The man regained the bank a quarter of a mile downstream. The police found one body four miles away. Two were killed and several injured in traffic accidents, mostly due to poor visibility at the height of the rain storms. In a localised storm which struck the suburb of Wentworthville, a shop, a house, a factory chimney, and railway signal box were demolished by wind and lightning, and at least seven houses were unroofed. The storms are estimated to have dafhaged 200,000 acres of wheat and oats crops in the Riverina district. When the wheat was green the farmers expected a yield of 14 bags to the acre.