TORNADO IN SYDNEY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 11 March 1913, Page 5

TORNADO IN SYDNEY.

CABLE NEWS

[United Prm Aiipdution—Bn OBJflfittie Telegraph—.Copyright.)

IMMENSE DAMAGE DONE. SOME EXCITING EXPERIENCES (Received Last Night-, 9.30 o'clock.) SYDNEY, March 10. Many of the city and suburban shops and warehouses suffered severely by the storm . water percolating tin ought the roofs and inundating the basements. The theatres were emptied. At the .middle of tlie deluge an unusual sight- wag witnessed. A richlydressed woman denuding 'herself of her shoes and stockings and wading through the flooded streets to reacih the trams.

At _Bondi, the dammed flood waters swept through lower bedrooms, where a man and several waitresses were sleeping. 'The man escaped, but the women took refuge on the heavier pieces of furniture, the lighter having been carried away by the rush of the water, which was several feet deep. One woman climbed on to a verandah, and the other was rescued with difficulty.

Manly fared badly, the roads being torn up and many houses damaged by the force which was round the lagoon. At Manly Vale the houses ,were deeply inundated, the furniture floating in, the rooms. Poultry farmers were great losers. A man named Waters was washed out of a motor boat which was moored at the-wharf, and wa s drowned. The sea was so rough that would-be rescuers were unable to reach him. At Sylvania, in St. George's river, four girls had ® sensational escape. Their house was unroofed, and the debris smashed the beds where they were sleeping. The girls were practically unhurt. In the. lowlands around Marrickville,, Cook's river scattered the furniture, and household belongings were swept from the houses. Dead poultry, c cats, dogs, and a number of horses were drowned. The. roof of a house at Lake Como was lifted bodily and carried half a mile and deposited in the river. At Annandale a couple were penned in a house by the flood water. The husband escaped by a-window, carrying his sick wife. When the roof of the Imperial Hotel at Clifton was carried on to an adjoining building, where a woman and infant were .sleeping the ceiling collapsed., with the exception of that just Over the bed. The occupants lay still till they were rescued. The guests in the hotel were smothered in an avalanche of plaster and broken glass, but none were injured. Two left their bedrooms just before the tornado struck the hotel. Returning upstairs, they found the chimney stack had fallen, and smashed to atoms the beds on which, under ordinary circumstances, they would have been sleeping.

In the second house the 'hotel roof struck where a man, his wife and child were sleeping. The weight of the debris jambed the doors, and tlhe occupants had great difficulty in escaping. The danger was increased by the falling wreckage. At the height of the gale in Sydney, the wind blew at a velocity of 66 miles.

For a few minutes alter, midnight the rain fell at the rate of nine hundred points (nine inches) per hour. After anchoring till imorning the steamer Queensland resumed her voyage to Newcastle.

ONE OF THE WORST ON RECORD TRAM AND FERRY SERVICES DISLOCATED. LOW LYING AREAS SUBMERGED (Received March 10, 9.35 a.m.) SYDNEY, March 10. Tlie storm was on© of the worst on. record. The metropolitan area was the centre of misfortune. From a. moderate north-easterly the gale developed to hurricance force in a couple of hours, accompanied by deafening thunder, vivid lipjbtning, and a Altogether rain, fell for 28.} hours in the city, and 759 points v.'ere registered. The streets were transformed into streams, sweeping the low-Iving'areas, which were quickly submerged, in places many feet deep. The tram services were dislocated through debris blocking the ralis, long stretches of 'which iVere under water. Sixty cars were derailed, hut none were injured. The ferry services were discontinued antl the vessels moored. The smaller craft lhad a rough ihandling. The only harbour fatality was that

previously cabled, the drowned man j Walter Moore, being a prominent yachtsman. There, was a peculiar fatality at Waterloo. An electric wire broke," and in falling curled round the neck of a man named Clifford, who was electrocuted. The cabman who was drowned at Leichardt was named Stockley, He was driving in the darkness, and on the road there was a- deep dip filled with flood water, into which tlie horse stumbled. The man's body was recovered in eight feet of water. COAL PITS IDLE. RAILWAY CAMP DESTROYED. (Received Last Night, 10.3 o'cock.) " SYDNEY, March 10. Owing to washouts »on the lines four of tihe Newcastle coal pits . are thrown idle. The storm is now over. I At Gippsland heavy rains are fall-

The gale struck a big navvies' camp on the Iliawarra line, in the early hours of Sunday morning, and swept away all the tents. Hundreds of men were shivering for hours in the torrential rain.