Hurricane Rakes Rarotonga

Cargo Lighters Stranded in Main Street

From Our Own Correspondent.

Rarotonga, Feb. 25.

AFTER years of comparative immunity Rarotonga, is now recovering from the effects of the most severe weather expenenced since 1893.

On Thursday, February 7, barometers started to fall, reaching, on Sunday night, the lowest known recording of 28.97.

Meanwhile, the wind had increased from a gale to hurricane pitch, blowing at 90 miles an hour from the north-west.

Huge seas rolled in on the island, churning and volleying along the white curve of the reef like lines of smoking destroyers racing for the shore.

The main settlement of Avarua received the full force of the storm, the approach of which, strangely enough, roused singularly little activity until it

was too late to make any effective pro tection of property. With sinister rapidity the hurricane gathered strength, leaping with amazing ferocity from the darkness of Saturday night on to the ex posed, already shaken township. Jerry built native shacks went down before it, while galvanised iron roofs clattered like castanets, in several cases ripping away from their wooden rafters to be whirled off like so many sheets of grey blotting paper.

Along the water-front, where the buildings stand as close as 30 or 40 yards above high-tide mark, the damage was heaviest. A small shop and a neighbour ing dwelling-house were completely de molished, leaving in their places only a barren expanse of coral-studded ground.

Further along, the seas pounded the rear portion of Messrs, dagger and Harvey’s store.

Shortly after midday on Sunday the road skirting the settlement was torn up for a distance of several hundred yards and deposited, together with a consider able quantity of sand and loose rock, in the gardens of the Hotel Rarotonga and the Chief Customs Officer. At the same time a fleet of large cargo lighters be longing to the Union Steamship Co. were lifted off the slipway and sent foaming past the Administration offices, before stranding in the middle of the Tukuvaine road. One, caught by cross-currents, careened onto the Government steps and came to rest with its. bows a few feet from the Resident Commissioner’s room- The volume of water was so great that a tract of low-lying and thickly popu lated land behind the hotel was inun dated to a depth of six or seven feet.

In the hospital Dr. Ellison, S.M.O., performed a major emergency operation while waves lashed at the base of the back verandah, forcing a thin sandy trickle under the ward doors.

On Monday, the island presented an unusual appearance. Telephone wires curled in festoons across the Circular Road, which was for two or three days impassable at certain points. Here and, there whole sections had been obliterated by the sea, while at others passage was barred by fallen trees. Every village had its own quota of roofless or wrecked houses; and in Avarua the posts of Messrs. A. B. Donald and Co.’s private wharf rose from the surrounding waters

like blackened teeth in a rush of foam flecked saliva.

Considering the exceptional severity of the storm, surprisingly small damage was done. Volunteer labour corps were quickly organised to clear the roads; individuals rebuilt or removed the re mains of their houses, and rubbish was burnt so expeditiously and with such general good temper that it is now almost impossible to credit the memories of two weeks ago.

But, in events of this kind, the most serious effects are not immediately vis ible. They lie in the losses among orange and banana plantations, losses which have been unofficially estimated at be tween 60 and 80 per cent, of the total crop. The coming year will be a “lean” one, not only for native growers but for those business firms who depend largely for their trade upon the circulation of money derived from the sale of fruit.

The Resident Commissioner, Judge H.

F. Ayson, C.M.G., who was away on furlough, returned hurriedly from New Zealand by yesterday’s mail steamer.

The north-westerly hurricane which raked Rarotonga is reported to have extended over an area of 400 miles and fear has been expressed locally for the small low-lying atolls of the Northern Group. In response to radio requests the New Zealand Government have des patched the Union Co.’s ship Maital, which is due to arrive here early this week, whence she will proceed north on a tour of investigation. On board are Mr. Smith, Secretary for the Cook Is lands Department, and Dr. Dawson, of Christchurch. The Maitai is expected to call at Penrhyn, Manihiki and Rakahanga in addition to visiting the islands of the Lower Group.

Only incomplete reports of the hurri

cane in the Lower Group are available.

In all cases heavy damage to fruit crops is reported, the island of Aitutaki being particularly hard hit.

The White Star’s luxury cruiser Fran conia, scheduled to reach Rarotonga on February 13, was diverted on the request on the local authorities. The Franconia’s captain reiterated his wish to visit the scene of the hurricane, with 500 moneyed sightseers, but was again refused on grounds of inadequate provision for their reception. Steaming for Samoa, dis gruntled luxury passengers saw nothing, but saved the money which might other wise have been spent in the island.