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Leigh Creek's
terror night
in hurricane
Leigh Creek is a battered town
today after the hurricane which
caused two hours of terror last night.
Men and women feared their homes would
not stand the hurricane;, which reached a peak
of 92 m.p.h., and flattened many aluminium
garages, a prefabricated church, one wall of
the RSL Hall and half the tents in the tent
line.
At the height of the
hurricane the town was
plunged into a black
out.
Damage was estimated
at several thousands of
pounds.
Dust so thick that it cut
out visibility like a pea-
soup fog swirled inside
Leigh Creek homes during
the storm.
At Copley, five miles
south, the house of Mr.
R. Goldberg was unroofed.
He and his wife and five
young children were taken
to Copley Hotel to spend
the night. All their pos
sessions were damaged by
the hurricane.
A verandah was blown
off the grocer shop of Mr
K W. Hirsch, and the
mess hut at Hall's con
struction camp was blown
away.
Damage appears to have
been confined to Leigh
Creek and Copley. Bel
tana to the south, and
Lyndhurst to the north
had gale-force winds, terri
fic dust and rain, but no
damage was reported.
At Leigh Creek Hospital,
a small wooden building,
which was to have been
converted into a morgue,
was smashed to match-
wood.
Air conditioning failed at
the hospital itself, where
seven patients had a terri
fying experience listening
to the howling wind and
battering of debris.
Wind records
Mr. W. A. McDonald,
employed at the aerodrome,
said the anemometer
showed a wind velocity of
92 m.p.h. at 8.50 p.m. In a
short time it had jumped
from 25 m.p.h. Then the
wind blew consistently be
tween 65 and 80 m.p.h. for
half an hour. Within the
hour it had eased to 45
m.p.h., and by midnight
The wind started blowing
again at 2 a.m. at 35 m.p.h.
there was a flat calm .
Mrs. R. Wirth, who moved
into her house two days
ago, said: "I'm trying to
clean it up now. Everything
was polished and shining
like new when we came in.
You ought to see it now.
"This is not like the Ade
laide dust;" she continued.
"It stains everything. It is
an inch thick on the floors
and window sills.
"When this dust came up
it was like a fog. You
could not see your hand in
front of you. It had been a
stifling hot evening, and we
were in bed. Before we
could get out to close the
windows the damage had
been done. There was dust
everywhere."
One motorist travelling
north near Copley about 8
p.m. had to stop, with the
back of his car faced into
the dust. He said the car
headlights could not pene
trate the dust, and it was
impossible to see anything
except during lightning
flashes.
* See: Rainfall-Page
7.
$