Storm reaps havoc

A savage storm, with winds that may have reached 200 kilometres an hour, battered parts of the Ord Valley on Sunday.

Hail, nearly the size of golf balls battered crops in Packsaddle and Crossing Falls.

Banana trees were particularly hard hit, with few left standing in some areas.

The already poor mango crop was again severely damaged with thousands upon thousands of nearly ripe mangoes strewn under trees.

Many mango trees were uprooted and others lost branches.

Pawpaw crops were also smashed about in the wind, rain and hail.

On Lake Kununurra, people enjoying boating and canoeing suffered severely (See story Page 3).

Several sheds lost their roofs and a large structure to protect equipment from the weather was crushed into a mangled wreck at Jill and Quentin Parker's Packsaddle property.

The force of the structure coming down moved a tractor and implement weighing about four tonnes four metres.

It also damaged just about every panel on a small bus.

On Monday morning Quentin was surveying flattened banana crops, uprooted mango trees and a fortune in mangoes lying bruised under storm-lashed trees.

Quentin said he was still smiling at that stage, but only just.

He said he had been moved by the people who had immediately offered help.

Lightning knocked out power in Kununurra as well as three television channels.

Trees in some areas were uprooted and others snapped off.

The storm was not as severe at Kununurra Airport where Bureau of Meteorology statistics show a wind speed of 91 kilometres and hour and 12 millilitres of rain.

Temperatures dropped from 42 degrees earlier in the day to the low 20s in some areas during the storm.