SUDDEN GALE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1940, Page 4

SUDDEN GALE

- EXTENSIVE DAMAGE DONE f IN SYDNEY ’ SOME BUILDINGS UNROOFED. ' TRAFFIC TEMPORARILY DISORGANISED. (By Telegraph —Press Association-Copyright) SYDNEY, October 31. A most violent storm of brief duration struck the metropolitan area at 3.15 o'clock this afternoon and did extensive damage. The storm was heralded by a sudden oppressiveness, heavy black clouds plunging the city in semi-darkness. Then came a south-westerly gale, at 94 miles an hour, and like a tornado, carrying paper and debris high into the heavens. It lifted the roofs off the railway sheds at Home Bush and Rozelle, bringing down awnings, fences, trees, chimneys and overhead power lines in various suburbs. Traffic in the city was practically brought to a standstill and some of the electric train services were disorganised. Trams and motor-cars were compelled to turn on theii - lights as a safety precaution in the semi-darkness, which was repeatedly illuminated by vivid flashes of lightning. A crane at a coal siding at Ball’s Head crashed, imprisoning the engineer in the cabin. Cottages at Kensington and Concord and some of the northern suburbs were unroofed and fires were started by fallen electric wires. A mystery explosion resembling a fireball occurred in the shopping centre of Naremburn suburb and considerably damaged two shops. Fences collapsed over a wide area. HAVOC IN DUBBO

i — MANY BUILDINGS UNROOFED [ OR WRECKED. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) i SYDNEY, This Day. . A report from the Western wheat , centre of Dubbo states that the tornado also wrought havoc in that township, causing £lOO,OOO worth of damage in . twenty minutes. Many modern homes and also shops, offices and factories were unroofed. Power lines were brought down and roads and streets littered with roof tiles and iron. The Dubbo grain sheds were practically wrecked.