Reports of wild weather causing chaos made front page news on this day in 1959. The Canberra Times reported that almost every suburb of Canberra had flooded due to recent storm activity.
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Police alerted fire crews and ambulance officers at the height of the storm, predicting mayhem and emergency situations throughout Canberra. Visibility on the roads was extremely poor with motorists forced to abandon flooded cars and wade through the floodwaters to higher ground.
Homes were also flooded, leaving residents frightened and panicked while trapped in their homes with swirling water and debris everywhere. Police attempted to evacuate those most at risk in Griffith from their homes, however, hail and wind complicated matters. One family who were rescued included four children who were found huddled on top of the roof, terrified.
One man, a Mr John Shannon from Griffith said he watched, horrified as a rush of water swept away a brick wall and fence before hurtling towards his house. The water then burst through his front door and flooded the house. Thankfully he managed to get his wife and children to safety by carrying them to a neighbors house. Tales of similar frightening situations came from the worst hit suburbs and the damage to houses, streets and cars would take considerable time to fix.
See: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/11486339