HAIL LIKE SHRAPNEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 12

HAIL LIKE SHRAPNEL

20,000 TONS FALL ON JOHANNESBURG The fiercest hailstorm ever known on the Rand occurred recently in Johannesburg. It lasted about 20 minutes, beginning at five o’clock, and at the end of that time the streets in the centre of the town looked as if they were the streets of a Northern European town after a blizzard. Roofs sagged under great masses of hail and shopkeepers and others were in a state of grave anxiety owing to the damage caused to stocks through the seepage of water. For some time traffic was practically at a standstill, says the “Cape Times.” Pavements beneath verandahs were crowded with marooned pedestrians who after the hail ,had ceased slipped and slithered ungracefully through the masses of hail on the unprotected pavements and roadways. Fortunately the cost is not so great in terms of actual money as was feared. It is believed, however, that the actual loss to storekeepers is in the vicinity of £50,000. Very little of that will be recovered from the insurance companies. The area of the storm was well defined, and varied but slightly as long as the downpour lasted. The western and northern suburbs escaped almost entirely. The brunt of the storm was borne by the centre of the city, and the area lying immediately east of it. The centre of the c.ity, covering an area of about 200 acres, came in for the full fury of the etorm, and it is estimated that some 20,000 tons of shrapnel-like hail fell. The intensity and peculiarly localised incidence of the storm is attributed by the Union astronomer, who describes the visitation as the event of a lifetime, to the meeting of two storms which arrested each other’s progress and discharged simultaneously at the place where they met in the heavens. Hundreds of houses have been damaged. During the height of the storm lightning struck ' the Palace Buildings, and set fire to a dentist’s apartment. The flames mounted along the electric wire in the room, and were already licking the ceiling when the dentist came in from an adjoining room and took prompt action.