TORNADO IN VICTORIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1920, Page 5

TORNADO IN VICTORIA.

PATH CUT THROUGH A FOREST,

Sydney Sept. 28. There was an extraordinary occurrence near Chilteru, a Victorian country district, last week, when a wind of terriflic force arose, and in a very short time did great damage. The. wind arose suddenly in the afternoon. The air had been still and heavy There came a sharp breeze, the breeze became a gate, and the gale in u few minutes was a howling tornado. The extraordinary feature was that the disturbance appeared most limited in its area. It moved along a track that was nowhere more than one hundred yards wide. Unfortunately, the centre of the disturbance passed fairly over the middle of the township of Chiltern. _ The full force of the wind struck a lightly-built frame house owned by Mr. Frank Cross, in Albert-road. It snatched the. roof off in a twinkling, and carried it away. Then the whole structure was thrown from its foundations, carried some yards, where it then collapsed, a pitiful heap of ruins. Mrs. Cross was in the house when the roof came off. Half mad with terror, she rushed outside, just as the whole structure began to move. She -was caught by the wind, thrown off her feet, and buffeted about, being severely bruised. All the furniture in he house was smashed.

Other buildings in the town suffered badly, but not so severely. Many of them were unroofed. For' some "minutes the air was full of flying roofingiron. "The sky seemed to be full of aeroplanes," said one man. Some of these sheets were picked up miles away from Ohiltern. Chimneys and tree's came down in all directions. The people, of course were terror-stricken, but no one was seriously injured. Chiltern lies in the midst of a forest. After the gale subsided, in about half an hour, the forest showed a strange sight. A track from 60 to 100 yards wide had been smashed through the forest by the tornado. Trees along this track had been either blown down or stripped of their branches—but others, on either side of the track, were not damaged. The phenomenon causal a complete, though not lengthy, interruption of the railway and telegraph communication in that part of the country.