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TERRIFIC STORM AT DRAYTON,
QUEENSLAND.
T-- Toowoomba papers of Wednesday, the
19th instant, advise us of a frightful storm
near Drayton, on Saturday week. It seems
to have been the most violent of the season,
and we regret to say has already been as
certained to have been followed by loss of
life, as well as considerable damage to pro
perty.
Mr. William Bennett of Drayton, who
was at the time returning from work, met
with his death from being struck by the
lightning. It appears that the deceased took
shelter under a large ironbark tree which
stands at the head of Lawrence-street, near
Mr. Allen's paddock, and while there two
men passed by and cautioned him against
remaining in so dangerous a place; but Ben
nett did not take the warning, considering
no doubt he was comparatively safe, and
preferring the shelter from facing the storm,
which was at the time very fierce. Nothing
more was heard of deceased till next morn
ing, when some young lads looking for horses
saw him lying dead under the tree where he
was standing the evening before. The alarm
was soon given, and upon examination it was
ascertained that the tree had been struck by
lightning near its top, and coursing along
the trunk, which it tore in shreds, entered
the head of the unfortunate man, causing a
hole near the ear, and passing along his side
came out above his knee, tearing into the
ground about a yard.from its victim. The
marks of electricity were quite visible on the
body, appearing like powder inside the skin,
and it is evident that death must have been
instantaneous, for the deceased looked as
placid as if asleep. Poor Bennett, who was
a harmless, inoffensive man, leaves a wife 1
and two young children, who are but scantily 1
provided for.
During the same thunderstorm a tree
within ten or twelve yards of Mr. Asquith's
house, where a family resides, was shattered I
into a thousand fragments. The glass in
the post-office windows was smashed by the I
hailstones, which were as large as pigeons'
eggs; cornstalks were actually flattened to
the earth in many of our maize fields, while
the fruit trees were in a wholesale manner
denuded of their leaves and luscious bur
dens.
On Gowrie Creek and its immediate vicin
ity the storm was one of the most awful that I
ever took place in that part of the world
at least none such is remembered from the
earliest settlement of the whites up to the
present period.
Mr. R. F. Walker noticed a very ominous
storm advancing swiftly from the south-west,
and which appeared to be about two. miles
distant. In five minutes the storm was close
at hand, and presented the appearance of a
dull mass of fire. Directly afterwards it
struck, bringing trees and branches of im
mense size with it, and threatening to carry
everything away. The hail and rain fell in
masses as from a sluice, rendering it com
pletely dark, and in five minutes that gentle
man's garden was turned into a wilderness
-that is, the bark was beaten from the
trees by the hail on the weatherside as though
it hi;d been done with hammers; the fruit,
even oranges and lemons, were stripped i
from the trees, and scarcely a leaf was to be
seen on any tree after the storm had passed.
Vegetables were beaten off close to the
ground, grape-vines beaten to a pulp, and
the growing corn totally destlroyed, being
out to pieces. The hail was as large as
hens' eggs. Almost at the first burst a hay
stack of about ten tons was half turned over
and scattered far and wide, and half of a
large shed was unroofed. Mr. Walker
barely escaped being struck by a large tree
that fell near the house, and heard, amid
the roar of the discordant elements, its heavy t
thud as it fell to the ground. He turned
round to look in that direction; but the air I
was so dense that he could not see it, nor
was he aware until after the storm was over
what the sudden noise close by proceeded
from. Mr. Walker was afterwards in the 1
kitchen with his.wife and children, and see- 1
ing the roof lift, and being afraid the girders
would break, ordered them to run to the
dwelling-house immediately, which they did.
They were little more than clear of the
kitchen when Mr. Walker saw the roof was t
going, bolted to save himself, and was barely
in time, for part of the roof slightly grazed
his back as he was escaping from the falling
debris.' Arrived at the garden-gate he found
it buttoned, and in attempting to unbutton
it, was struck so severely on the knuckles by i
the hail that he could not undo it with his
hand, but managed to unfasten it by press
ing his knee against one side of the lower
portion of the button. Running to the front
of the dwelling-house, which was the lee
ward side, he found his wife and three sons
huddled up against the door, thoroughly
drenched, and unable to get in. The younger
children had looked the door, and, though
continually called on to open it, were either
too frightened to do so, or unable to iear
owing to the noise from the storm. Mr.
Walker broke in a square of glass, undid
the fastenings of a window and entered, the
children opening the door at the same time.
They had barely entered, when the glass of
the back window was all smashed by the
hail, and, in attempting to stop the inroad
of. the water by placing a mattrass against
the opening, Mr. Walker declares they
nearly got drowned where they stood-the
continual stream of water pouring over them
preventing them from drawing breath. The
width of the hurricane was not more than a
mile and a quarter; but the destruction
within that compass was pretty well com
plete, although it lasted not more than ton
or twelve minutes. Luckily no life was
sacrificed.
. A great deal of damage was also done to
other places in the vicinity. One house
within a short distance was totally destroyed,
and two women who were in the building
had barely time to escape with their lives as
itfell. They were blown to a large ironbark
tree, to which they both clung until their
clothes were literally torn from their bodies
-and strange to say, the top of this samer
tree was broken off while they were there,
without the women being aware of it.
A new house, belonging to Mr. Langton,.
situated on Dry Spring Creek, within 300 or
400 yards of the Warwick railway line, was
completely blown to ruins, and some of the
iron roofing was afterwards found wrapped
round a tree in a closer manner than it
could have been made to do by an expert
tradesman.
Strange to sany, the greatest destruction
took place in hollows, both on the windward
and leeward sides, and even in places that
might be supposed to have been almost tho
roughly sheltered. The track of the stornj
was along or near by the Warwick line of
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