A DISASTROUS CYCLONE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 311, 10 February 1910, Page 2

A DISASTROUS CYCLONE

Further particulars regarding the violent storm at Brewarrina, New South Wales, shows that cyclone was the most disastrous ever experienced in those parts. About 6.30 p.m. on Friday, January 28, heaps of rotary" clouds •banned up in the south-east, and the wind blew with considerable force, culminating in a terrible cyclone, with appalling results. Rain simply pelted down, and later hailstones of great size and varied shapes fell for fully half an hour. It is estimated that during the time the storm lasted about six inches of rain fell. A vast amount of damage was 1 done. Birds were killed, as \vell as rabbits, dogs, and even opossums. Thousands of sparrows and , swallows were killed in the streets. Fowls fell from their roosts, and even rabbits could be seen running ,on the main thoroughfares, and in s'ome instances dropping dead under verandahs. The visitation lasted an hour and a half, and proceeded in a zigzag course along a strip of country probably riot more than half p. mile in width. It was very fitful, and there were some tremendously heavy blasts of wind, the velocity of which could hardly be estimated. Trees were uprooted, and those tnat stood ;were denuded of every vestige of foliage, and the whole country and town presented a sad s'pectacle, public buildings, business houses, churches, and dwellings heirig wrecked in all directions, and the whole town literally strewn with debris and corrugated iron. Timber was carried in many instances over a quarter of a mile. Brick buildings that had 'weathered the fiercest gales gave way before the cyclonic force of the Wind, and there remained fewer than a dogen houses that escaped serious ' damage, . the full value of which is estimated a l t from £IO,OOO to £15,000.