Wild Winds Kill 2
Illawarra Mercury
Thursday July 30, 1998
A South Nowra man was one of two people killed when wild winds lashed the state yesterday.
Gordon Clyde Timbs, 48, was asleep in his British Torpedo Unit (BTU) Rd house when a 25m tree was uprooted and crashed through the roof.
At Bathurst in the state's Central West, a 55-year-old man died and a woman was critically injured when an awning collapsed and tonnes of bricks spilled on to a footpath in the main street. Heavy snow falls and gales hampered the work of desperate rescuers.
Nowra Coroner Brian McKeough said Mr Timbs was killed when large sections of the building's structure struck him about 6.20am.
The coroner said it appeared Mr Timbs had slept in the lounge room earlier but had woken up and gone to the main bedroom to sleep. The bedroom bore the brunt of the damage. The alarm was raised by a neighbour who saw the damage to the house.
Police at first feared other family members were trapped or injured in the wreckage. However, it was later revealed that neither of Mr Timbs' two adult sons spent the night at home and his wife, Carlene, was in the Newcastle area visiting a seriously ill relative.
Police believe Mr Timbs died instantly.
Two other large gum trees lining a laneway to the home, sited about 150m from BTU Rd, also fell in the storm during which winds reached 100km/h.
Sergeant Wayne Dedden said police were concerned for the safety of ambulance rescue and SES crews who attended because power lines were brought down by the tree.
In Bathurst, thermal imaging equipment and ultra-sensitive microphones were brought in to determine there were no further people trapped in the wreckage of a shop awning brought down in the strong winds.
A 50-year-old Bathurst man died and a 55-year-old woman, also of Bathurst, was critically injured after being trapped in the wreckage.
Nearby streets were closed for several hours after steel posts supporting the awning dislodged, bringing down the awning and the brick rubble. The man died about 3pm just before he was due to be airlifted to Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
The rescue operation was carried out in difficult conditions, Inspector Ian Krimmer said.
``Heavy snow falls have hampered the effectiveness of the thermal imaging cameras," he said.
``Strong winds, gusting to gale force at times, threatened to collapse the front brick wall, posing additional risks to rescue workers. The removal of debris will be a slow process because rescuers will have to remove each brick individually, hand to hand."
Bathurst shopkeeper Alan McRae, who was one of the first people at the scene of the tragedy, knew the awning was shaky before the collapse.
``A couple of years ago when we installed a sound system it wasn't a very stable awning," he said.
AEMr McRae said 20 seconds after he had walked under the awning ... ``I just heard an almighty bang and saw all the dust around the building".
The cause of the collapse had not yet been established, Senior Constable John Haynes of Bathurst police said.
AE Meantime, State Emergency Service officers have urged South Coast residents to closely monitor their homes and surrounding yards as strong winds continued to lash the region last night.
Winds gusting up to 100km/h brought close to 300 calls for assistance to SES stations between late Tuesday night and yesterday afternoon. The Shoalhaven area was the hardest hit with more than 200 requests for assistance.
Wollongong SES duty officer Denis McKay said their job would be made easier if people regularly checked their yards and roofs during high winds.
``People could do a lot to minimise damage and other accidents by having a stroll around the yard and inspecting trees and branches which may have been weakened or roof tiles which become loose," he said.
© 1998 Illawarra Mercury