A SUDDEN CYCLONE.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 March 1922, Page 4

A SUDDEN CYCLONE.

NEW PLYMOUTH AFFECTED. MINOR DAMAGE WROUGHT 1 A gale of cyclonic force swept over New Plymouth about 6 o’clock last evening, leaving in its track a fair amount of minor damage to buildings and fences. For a brief period exceptionally heavy rain flooded the roadways. The rain was teeming down at the time when suddenly people were startled by a loud rumbling from the direction of the sea. The resultant damage caused by the cyclone showed that it took a well-defined track, being first experienced in King Street, where the roof of the garage of Messrs. George and Julian wan lifted about six inches for the whole of its length on the eastern 'ide. This was caused by the wind sweeping up a narrow lane adjoining the building, striking a door whioh blocked the southern entrance, and part of its force was diverted upwards, where three 12ft. pnrlims, supporting the roof-iron, were lifted. The cyclone meanwhile epntinued its wild course through the door-way and swept through the gap between Messrs. J. B. Mac Ewan and Co. and the Northern Steamship Co?e buildings. A paling fence near the A.M.P. buildings, fronting Egmont Street, was laid low and various unsecure fixings in the vicinity were whirled about. Several windows in the upstair apartment of Messrs. Newton King, Ltd/s building, fronting Brougham Street, were blown in, whilst a window at the Imperial Hotel suffered a similar fate. The most serious damage was snatained by Messrs. Hallentein Bros., whose big plate glass window, though not smashed, was badly cracked in several places. In the area outside the centre of the town the cyclonic visitation seems to have passed unnoiticed, though fairly extensive minor damage was wrought/ji in Hine Street. v