MENACED TOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1939, Page 6

MENACED TOWN

FEARS OF MAJOR CALAMITY AT PORT HEDLAND ALL COMMUNICATION CUT OFF. STORM DAMAGE ELSEWHERE IN STATE. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) PERTH, January 12. Fears that a major calamity has occurred as a result of the cyclone in the north-west part of Western Australia are increasing. Port Hedland is now entirely cut off from every form of communication. Torrential rains have fallen in this area and also in the southern parts of the State. A violent storm, followed by destructive floods, caused damage estimated at £50,000 at Kalgoorlie and Boulder. Two persons are missing at Boulder. Two thousand miners have been rendered temporarily unemployed at Kalgoorlie, where the streets are awash. The Kalgoorlie express was held up by landslides and washaways.

At Marble Bar a madly rushing creek has cut the town in halves.

It was reported from Perth yesterday that an eighty mile an hour cyclone at Port Hedland (on the northwest coast of Australia) had raised such seas that many houses in the town had been washed away. The town is built in a low-lying area, close to the sea. An urgent wireless appeal for assistance, said: “Hedland is surrounded by the sea. The wind is increasing, and the sea is rising. Please endeavour to get a message to Broome, Perth, or anywhere possible.”