TRAIL OF DAMAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 August 1938, Page 6

TRAIL OF DAMAGE

THE GALE IN MARLBOROUGH BREAK IN INTER-ISLAND COMMUNICATIONS. RAILWAY WORKERS’ COTTAGES UNROOFED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, This Day. One of the worst northerly storms for many years developed in the Marlborough province yesterday and left a trail “bf damage in several localities. The most serious results were felt at Picton, where a number of launches were wrenched from their moorings in the harbour and thrown up along the foreshore, many being seriously damaged. At the railway construction camp at Aniseed, on the South Island Main Trunk line, a number of workers’ cottages had their roofs blown off, about -a hundred people having to spend the night in the Y.M.C.A. building. Another serious consequence of the gale was the disruption of telephone and telegraph communication practically throughout the province. Two bad breaks on the east coast involved a total disruption of communication between the North and South Islands. It was not until this morning that a partial restoration of service was possible.

The gale was not felt to any serious extent in Blenheim, but south of Blenheim, particularly about Kekerangu, Clarence Bridge and Aniseed, the wind reached gale force. Early in the afternoon, several telegraph poles were blown over between Clarence Bridge and Kaikoura, practically severing inter-island communication. Not long afterwards further poles were blown over at Kekerangu, bring the lines down.