TORNADO IN VICTORIA. SERIOUS DAMAGE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 410, 12 October 1889, Page 4

TORNADO IN VICTORIA. SERIOUS DAMAGE.

Last Fridaj' week various portions of the northern district of Victoria were visited by a regular tornado. At Bright the storm was of unparalleled violence, the rain pouring in torrents, just aa if from a water spout. The gale was of such terrific force that trees planted in streets were blown down, numerous sheds and outbuildings dismantled, and verandahs stripped clean. One tree fell on the State school, knocking down one of the gable walls. The Church of England and the courthouse were also slightly damaged. The storm, however, quickly passed. At Tatura the streets and low-lyins: lands were flooded. At Yangarre many houses were unroofed and early crops destroyed ; and from Rushworth similar repoi ts have been received. The track of thegalo can be traced for miles by the uprooted trees, and the roads are impassable in some places. Trees were felled, houses unroofed and trees blown down at Murchison, where the tornado was also experienced ; but the damage done was limited. From Shopparton comes news of like import. During the height of the gale the express train from Sydney had a very narrow escape. When travelling beyond Seymour, near Burnt Creek, the diiver felt the en gine jump and knew that he had passed over some obstaclo, but the night was so fearfully dark that he could see nothing. On arrival at the station he reported the occurrence, and a gang of men was sent down the line and found that two large trees had been blown down. The heads lay on the lino and the oxpre^s had crashed right through them. Had the trees fallen a little further on, a terrible catastrophe would probably have happened.