My Account
Accounts of recent storm damage lead very well into an account which appeared in the Northern Advocate of 29 March, 1922, under the heading ‘Cyclonic Storm’. The story appeared as follows:
Northern Havoc, Wellsford and Te Hana, Several houses wrecked.
Accounts to hand from Wellsford of the storm on Sunday night which dislocated the Whangarei-Auckland telegraph service give particulars of the unusual violence. It is stated the storm which was cyclonic in character, came from the North, via Paparoa, cutting a track through the country in its travels, levelling hedges, breaking large pine trees, destroying fences and orchards and breaking telephone wires.
At Wellsford the full force of the storm was felt. Observers saw a great funnel-shaped cloud, like a gigantic whirlwind and waterspout, travelling from the north and licking up every movable object in its course. At Te Hana, it lifted a three-roomed house with a brick chimney many feet into the air, together with pine trees and sheet iron. Some of these were blown a great distance. The house was smashed to small pieces, some of the iron reaching Wellsford.
At Wellsford the cyclone was a little to the north of the station and in its way over the hills struck the house of Mr A. Osborn. The latter with his wife and son aged 19 who were in the house were lifted with the building which rose bodily, was swirled round in the air, carried some distance and dashed to matchwood. A piano and the furniture were broken up, the timber being littered around for many chains. Iron window weights travelled ten chains and were half buried in the clay hills. A neighbour Mr Tony Ivicevich whose fences and barn were partially wrecked before the gale reached Mr Osborn’s house rushed to the assistance of his stricken neighbours and found Mr and Mrs Osborn and their son in an unconscious condition in a paddock about five chains from the site of the house. The neighbours, police and the district nurse were soon on the spot and rendered aid. Mrs Osborn was very badly injured internally and is in a serious condition. Mr Osborn was severely cut about the head and crushed. The son is severely bruised. All are suffering from shock. A doctor from Warkworth attended the patients, and Mr and Mrs Osborn were sent by train to the Auckland hospital. To have had St John’s Ambulance in attendance and the ability to obtain relief by cell phone or similar was unknown of in those days. Nowadays we don’t always appreciate how far we have come with technology. It certainly makes disasters, hard though they can be, much easier to cope with.
