Houses Wrecked by Fierce Whirlwind

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 557, 9 January 1929, Page 1

Houses Wrecked by Fierce Whirlwind

DAMAGE AT W AIM ATE DRAY HURLED OVER FENCE Press Association WAIMATE, To-day. A whirlwind lasting about a minute and a-half was experienced at V/aiho Forks on Monday afternoon at three o’clock. Extensive damage was done to the homestead and surroundings of Mr. William Charles Ashworth, who has a farm at Allanholme. and considerable damage was done in the vicinity of the Allanholme coal mine. Mr. Ashworth’s house was lifted two feet off its foundations and turned round slightly. The kitchen chimney and the washhouse chimney were levelled, and the iron roof torn off the washhouse. The roof was strained in other parts and is now leaky. Many pine trees near the house were uprooted and others bent. The orchard was completely ruined, several trees being rooted out. A whare was smashed to matchwood, the stable and an adjoining shed were completely wrecked, and a sheaf stack was also carried away. A dray was lifted over a fence and a Sig under the trees carried for a ohain and a-half and smashed. At the Allanholme coal mine, a short distance from the homestead, a small house was lifted, half of it being carried for two chains. All tho mine staging was torn down and several telephone p >les nearby snapped off four feet f-om the ground. The whirlwind, how er, was con4lned to this small ar a.