The deadly tornado

It took 10 minutes for the tornado that ripped through the suburb of Frankton in Hamilton to reduce whole streets to rubble, injuring many and killing three.
It had been a rainy day on August 25, 1948, and it was nearly lunchtime when the roaring began.
The little town of Frankton Junction was built around the railway station and the industrial commercial area - most men were workers and women were homemakers. In many ways it was a very traditional suburb.
None would have expected their world to be turned - quite literally - upside down.
The tornado seemed to come from a nearby wooded area and it headed right through the commercial part of Frankton.
Within minutes the tornado cut a swath 200m wide through the suburb.
One woman was home with her two children, just setting the table for lunch when a huge dark cloud turned day into night. Taking her children she headed to the front door only for the tornado to pick up the entire house, hurl it across the road and drop it.
By sheer luck, while the rest of the house was badly damaged, the hallway she and her children were in was intact.
Nevertheless the damage was extreme - sheets of corrugated iron were catapulted through houses, 150 houses completely destroyed, along with 50 business premises.
Roads became a wilderness of smashed cars, downed telephone poles, twisted wire and furniture flung far afield.
In the aftermath another woman showed a newspaper reporter the ruin of her home but for a china cabinet - complete with all its contents completely untouched.
As it passed the tornado went through two hospitals, a school grounds and the gas works.
In Lake Road, Julius Kitchen and his wife Beatrice were home. The tornado lifted their house and flung it across their section to the railway line beyond. Joseph was knocked unconscious when a door hit him.
But Beatrice was found dead beside the railway line with a blow to the head.
Their neighbour Mary Jane Dillicar was also killed.
Jack Kaa Smith, an engineer’s apprentice died when the garage he was working at was hit. A door was flung on to him and despite getting to hospital he died a short time later.
Along with the dead were 80 injured and five needed hospital admission.
The damage caused was worth more than £1 million, equivalent to well over $77 million today.
Mary Jane Dillicar, nee Tretheway, 76, is buried in Hamilton West cemetery
Beatrice Kitchen, 67, 78 Lake Road is in Hamilton East cemetery while Jack Kaa Smith, 15, is in the Ngaruawahia Cemetery.
Picture by Noaa Zus.​