SYDNEY SCOURGED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 24, 20 April 1927, Page 1

SYDNEY SCOURGED

SWEPT BY TERRIFIC GALES FIVE LIVES LOST IN FLOOD AND STORM The cyclonic gale which struck Sydney during the holidays is raging with unabated fury. Damage amounting to thousands of pounds has been done to property and five men have been killed. Ferry and tram traffic is disorganised.

By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright SYDNEY, To-day.

The gale, accompanied by heavy rain, continues, and further damage to property has been reported. There are few houses and buildings in the city and suburbs that have not received some damage. At Enfield it is estimated that the velocity of the wind was 100 miles an hour. Houses were unroofed, and the damage is estimated at £7,000. Residents of Manly are in a serious plight. Owing to the heavy seas, the ferry service has ceased, and as the tram service has failed, buses are the only means oi transport. Huge seas are running at Sydney Heads, and only two steamers, the Comorin and Moreton Bay, went out yesterday. Further warning to shipping has been issued by the Weather Bure i, which states that the centre of the cyclone is between Lord Howe Island and Newcastle, moving eastward. The port of N wcastle has been closed to shipping since Monday, and exceptionally heavy seas are now running. Lighthousemen state that they have seen none worse for many years. It is reported from Windsor that the Hawkesbury River is rising rapidly. Several bridges have been washed away, and much land is inun-

dated. Valuable vegetable gardens are ruined in Sydney. From nine o’clock on Thursday morning to nine o'clock last nig'it. 14.602 inches of rain were registered at Port Kembla. The steamer Baron Ardrossan. which has just arrived from New Zealand, had a narrow escape from destruction in a fierce squall, when, wi h its anchors dragging badly, the windlass broke. She was drifting on to and a full head of steam saved her. She received a severe buffeting crossthe breakwater, but good seamanship ing the Tasman. -V and N.Z.

When the storm was at its height, telegraph and electric wires were blown down in all directions. Lar~» portions of the city and suburbs were plunged into darkness. Subsequently the bodies of two men —one at Newt wn, and the other at Drummoyne—were found. They had both been electrocuted through coming into contact with live wires. A third’man was killed at Granville by falling wreckage, and a similar fate overtook a man at Balmain. A fifth man was found dead in a pool of water in a street at Parramatta, and a sixth was run c,\r and killed on the rai’way near Campsie. It is estimated that, at leest 3.000 windows were destroyed. In some places the sky rained bricks, rafters, and sheets of galvanised iron from demolished buildings.—A. and N.Z.