Tariki Woman Hurt When Whirlwind Strikes Shed

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1942, Page 6

Tariki Woman Hurt When Whirlwind Strikes Shed

Miss E. Bowling, Tariki, was knocked unconscious when a whirlwind destroyed a milking shed in which she and her sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. R. Rumball, were sheltering from a storm on Sunday evening. The shed was on Mrs. J. Bowling's farm at the end of Ngaro Road, Tariki. The man and the two women had just finished milking and were waiting for a hail storm to pass when there was a flash of lightning and the shed wall caved in. There were no signs of anything being burned, and it is thought, therefore. that the whirlwind must have struck the shed at the same time as the lightning flashed. Part of the shed was carried across the Manganui Stream and dropped about a mile away. Not a stick of the shed was left standing. The verandah of Mrs. Bowling's house was torn off and a tree with a two-feet thick trunk was snapped off a short distance away from the shed. A haystack was blown down, a sheet of iron was blown off Mr. F. Hill's house, and a house was hit near Ratapiko. Miss Bowling was attended to by Dr. H. Law, Inglewood, who ordered her admission to the New Plymouth hospital. She was not seriously injured but had received a blow on the left side of her head. She is progressing favourably.