Suva Battered

Worst Hurricane in 30 Years

Prom Our Own Correspondent SUVA, March 17. /|LD-TIMERS in Fiji are comparing V/ Suva’s recent hurricane with the big “blow” of 1910, and have decided that this February storm was the worst for 30-odd years.

Hurricanes hereabouts are usually pre ceded (often for days beforehand) by a mounting chorus of hammering, bolt shooting, and precautionary unheaval generally. Few hurricane seasons pass without an “alert”, and often after a false alarm residents swelter for a couple of days behind their stuffy, battened win dows, grumbling at the over-cautious authorities who issue “warnings”, until fairer weather and a rising barometer signal the “all clear”.

So, when the “glass” began to fall on February 20, peonle were uneasy but not seriously alarmed, and went about their business as usual. As the morning wore on. conditions grew worse. Business men, with an uncertain glance from their baro meters to the nakedness of the signal flagstaff, remembered how often they had been warned in the past, and decided with a shrug that the authorities probably knew their job—-if there was no warning out. there couldn’t be much wrong.

Which was a nity! Because when the black balls were hoisted at 10.20 a.m., it was too late for them to do very much.

When they tried to telephone their homes and pass on the warning, many telephone wires were already down in a tangle of smashed trees.

A torrent of wind raged in from the south, shot through with howling gusts that grew always stronger and more fre quent. A little after noon, the anemometer registered its maximum of 110 m.p.h.— then ran off the record-sheet. Another hour’s chaos and then came a lull, which the weather-wise spent in reinforcing their eastern and northern defences.

After some 20 minutes there was a frenzied renewal of the assault from the east, veering gradually to north-east.

Towards nightfall, the wind dropned somewhat, and though a lieavy gale blew all night, next day dawned clear and only moderately windy.

But what a day it had been! A wind force estimated at between 120 and 130 m.ph. and 6.4 inches of stinging rain had left the town badly battered. Up rooted trees, fallen telegraph poles and tangled masses of wires, corrugated iron, end broken branches were everywhere.

From each house came the occupants to gaze ruefully on the wreckage of their garages and gardens, their broken trees and gutterings and missing roof-iron, and to draw what comfort they could from the fact that the house next door was just as bad and sometimes worse.

Yachts Driven Ashore

AT Walu Bay anchorage, the small boats suffered badly, many of them being either swamped or driven ashore —two of them were perched high up among the mangroves, while others lay at odd angles along the beach.

Burns Philp (SS) Co.’s building and the Union Soap Co.’s mill both lost portions of their roofs. Two faces of the new Government Buildings’ clock were blown in and the interior mechanism damaged.

The Attorney General’s house was un roofed, while big trees along Victoria Parade lay prone in all directions. The Government Domain and Botanical Gar dens were a pathetic tangle of smashed

vegetation.

The storm centre passed a few miles to the north of Suva, and Fijian and Indian houses thereabouts suffered heavily, a full half of inem oemg eiuitr destroyed or seriously damaged.

Nausori was battered, and the old CSR houses fared badly, the manager’s quarters and two other official houses being prac tically wrecked. The Nausori cane crop took heavy punishment, and conservative estimates figure on at least a 20 per cent, loss when crushing begins some three months hence. Fortunately, most other districts report all well, except for Lau, where coconut trees suffered considerably.

No European lives were lost in the hurricane, though three Indians and two Fijians are known to have been killed— one of the latter was electrocuted when clearing a radio aerial away from a power line.

Services Dislocated

IN Suva itself, the town Municipal staff worked splendidly both during and after the storm. The repairs and re construction work afterwards were a staggering job—for instance, most of Suva was without water for 24 hours, while electricity and telephone communications seemed quite hopeless to the layman, who looked at the bewildering tangles of wires and resigned himself—wrongly, as it turned out! —to a long spell of candles and hurricane lamps. Every available man assisted in clearing debris and helping harassed householders lift trees from their pathways and scraps of garages from their cars.

On the whole, the old buildings en dured the hurricane better than the new.

That is a generalisation, so there were exceptions; but two long-condemned buildings—Viti House and the old Gov ernment Offices—were unscathed, while many a new and near-new house mourned its vanished roofing and its strained and

cracked timbers. There may be a moral somewhere for present-day builders, grown careless with long immunity from hurricanes!

Suva, to-day, looks oddly naked, and seems to have twice as many houses, now that the screening trees and shrubs are mostly gone, but already pale traces of new green are appearing on broken branches, and in a few months the worst of the scars should be covered over.

The Beach debate still rages as to why there was so little warning given, and an official Board of Inquiry is investigating the subject.

Damage in Rural Districts

From a Special Correspondent NAUSORI, March 18.

IN the early morning of February 20 there were indications that rough weather was coming, but as the usual official warning of a hurricane had not been given, little heed was taken of weather conditions. Consequently, the big "blow” found everyone unprepared, and no steps had been taken to protect property.

By noon the wind had reached hurri cane force. Quickly houses were strip ped of their roofs, the iron of which was flying around; all out-houses were levelled with the ground; and to add to the intensity of damage, the wind was accompanied by torrential rain.

Practically all the Fijian koros (vil lages) were demolished, and their crops of food completely destroyed.

The Indians also suffered badly, their houses being blown down, and their crops of rice, etc., irretrievably lost. This is sure to cause a serious food shortage.

All the watercourses reached an excep tionally high level, flooding wide areas.

All communication by either wire or

road was interrupted, as most of the telegraph poles had fallen, and the roads rendered impassable. However, the Pub lic Works Department, with commend-

In The Supreme Court Of New

South Wales.—Probate Juris

DICTION. —In the matter of the

Estate Of Thomas Richard Elliott

Palmer Hetherington Late Of Nor

folk Island Retired deceased.—PUR SUANT to the Wills Probate and Ad ministration Act 1898-1938 the Testator’s Family Maintenance and Guardianship of Infants Act 1916-1938 and the Trustee Act 1925-1938 NOTICE is hereby given that every creditor or other person hav ing any debt or claim upon or affecting the Estate of the abovenamed deceased who died on or about the seventh day of February 1940 and of whose estate Ad ministration with the Will annexed was on the seventh day of March 1941 granted by ■ the Supreme Court of New South Wales to the Public Trustee is hereby required to send in particulars in writing of such debt or claim to the said Pub lic Trustee on or before the fifth day of July 1941 at the expiration of which time the said Public Trustee will proceed to convey and distribute the property and assets of the said deceased to or among the persons entitled thereto having re gard only to the debts or claims of which he then has notice. AND notice is hereby further given that the said Public Trus tee wi.ll not be liable for the property or assets or any part thereof so conveyed or distributed to any person of whose debt or claim he shall not have had notice at the time of such conveyance or distribu tion.—W. B. GEDDES, Public Trustee,

Savings Bank Building, 14

Castlereagh Street, Sydney,

March 12, 1941.

able promptitude, temporarily restored communication. Only a day or two elapsed before messages could be trans mitted, and cars were able to traverse the roads. Gangs of workmen are still putting the finishing touches to the repairs.

The flooded watercourses caused much damage to bridges, and there were sev eral land-slides.