HUFF AND PUFF

We had a big storm last night up here in the 'winterless north'. The wind blew so strong that the house shook. At midnight, whilst trying to get to sleep a series of powerful gusts battered the house. There was an almighty screeching and crashing sound which sounded like something was being thrown down our drive. I went outside with a torch and checked our roof and the roofs of the neighbouring houses on each side of us, the driveway, the road outside and even the beachfront all the while being tossed about by the wind and drenched. I couldn't see anything so went back inside. About 3 minutes later the fire siren went off (we have a community fire station staffed by volunteers and when there is a fire or other emergency a siren kind of like an air raid siren goes off). It turns out that the farmhouse up behind our house lost its roof. The entire roof was gone just leaving the 'bones' of the roof supports. This is an historic house about 120 years old. The roof was brand new having just been installed last year. I checked our roof today and thankfully it is intact. The luck of the draw I guess. It was funny, just before their roof was torn off, because the wind was so strong I was thinking of my two Uncles and Aunts houses which lost their roofs on the same night. It was the night of the Wahine Disaster  April 10th 1968. They had their houses in Kingston, Wellington. In the middle of the night strong winds entirely tore the roof of one of the houses off and tore half of the roof off of the other one. Uncle Noel, in the house that had the roof entirely torn off and which had most of the furnishings sucked out, previously had dark hair. Within days his hair turned grey.