Any ideas how such strong wind could be localised to one house??


03/09/2004 09:27 AM - (SA)

House blown away by "witchcraft"


The community of Muvhango in Bophelong is mystified as to the origins of an unusually selective wind that blew off a house's entire roofing system in Bophelong Muvhango section last week.

While even the shakiest of the neighbouring shacks within the same vicinity remained intact and unshaken the newly extended RDP house's roofing was blown away by a gust of wind that remains unexplained.

Magdalene Mokanyane the house owner told Vaal Weekly that she had been watching soapies on TV at around six o'clock last week Wednesday when out of nowhere the wind that she described as even not "that strong" pulled away the roofing system, the windows, curtain and their rails before the inside stove chimney followed suit.

`After that wind had gone we were literally sitting outside even though we were in the house', she said.

Mokanyane said she was more prone to believe that if the wind had been some sort of a tornado it could have affected more than one house.

She said what baffled her most was that there was an unexplained spark of fire in her kitchen that was followed by the mysterious wind.

To add to her family's woes, the house furniture had been destroyed by the rain that followed shortly after the roofing had been blown away.

`We can't even cook because the electricity box had been destroyed and all my blankets are wet as a result of the rain. I'm appealing to the council to please assist us in any way possible, no one is working in my family and I honestly do not how I'm going to fix this mess,' she explained.

The incident has left tongues wagging in the area amidst widely held speculation that the wind could have been an act of witchcraft by jealous people allegedly envious of the extensive renovations made to the house.

Article found here Vaal Weekly

Tornado, twister or water spout could cause a localised wind that is capable of taking the roof off of one house and leaving the neighbouring houses untouched.

Burn those witches, burn them!!



I mean really - ascribing witchcraft to unexplained phenomenon. Did we just slip back 300 years?

Loonboy! Burning Witches? How tacky...



I prefer mine lightly toasted

Hey some of us witch's don't take kindly to being burned or toasted.......

Um yeah....

Well, maybe if it was coming from a bunch of us suburbanites.... but let's not forget where this happened though, South Africa where Witchcraft, witch-doctors and voodoo all very common-place and very much part of their belief system...so let's not take the p*ss too much....

Anyway... I think it says in the article that they ruled out tornados and things like that.... so any other ideas??

Lightly sauteed, then Isis?


Allright Isis, we're joking. LB is well in tune with the ways of a modern Witch or Wiccan, being the healthy Pagan that he himself is. Well healthy since his last ceremonial sacrifice at a Welsh megalith.
Linker


BTW LB did you run into any Witches in Cornwall?

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Let us not forget that yes the story is from a country that would blame witches and have people actually stoned or beaten before blaming natural and more likely causes like wind.
I'm sticking with the tornado theory, less people get hurt that way.

What's so unexplained about a freak gust of wind taking the roof of a shack?

Freak weather conditions are pretty much par for the course nowadays.

A tornado that non of the other inhabitants fo the surrounding area saw, felt or witnessed in any way?

I'm not saying it was witchcraft either of course, as I don't believe humans have such powers (just my opinion) but I am still intrigued to know what could have casued it...also given the flaming sparks the owner of the house saw before the roof blew away

Flaming sparks? Correct me if I'm wrong but the shack had a fire. Perhaps a localized tornado blew fire thus causing embers to be airborn?

Atmospheric changes often occur before something like a Tornado, this could explain the sparks and also Tornado's and water spouts go unnoticed all over the world all the time they only last a very brief time, it doesn't mean that the they don't cause damage even if nobody saw it happen.

It was a house not a shack....The author mentioned shacks in the surrounding area that remained untouched.....

And no, it doesn't say anywhere in that article that there was a "fire" in there....

Really? Sparks would be caused inside a house prior to a tornado happening? Weird....

Water spouts? What's that about?

I've had rain fall on me and only me, nowhere else around. So certainly a tornado could do that. After all, most tornadoes go right up after forming anyway, so it's very conceivable that one could slide down, do a little damage, and go right up without anyone seeing it. And witchcraft is the age-old scapegoat, after all.

This is not too uncommon

We had a case here in Ireland a couple of weeks ago.....Two or three houses were wrecked and everything else nearby was fine
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0731/storm.html

These are normally left alight right? Possible source of sparks when it was "ripped" from its foundations?

If that was the case she wouldn't have bothered mentioning a spark as it would have been obvious where the source was from

Why would it?

You are basing that opinion on the occupants being honest and telling the story as it happened. Judging by the location and the tendencies of that area is not possible she exaggerated a little?

Exaggerated maybe....who knows? But I don't think that just because of where someone comes from it makes them any less credible.... think thats a bit of an odd statement actually lol....

Whereabouts would the incident have to have been based to be more credible in your opinion then, and why?

You really haven't understood my statement have you?

Let me enlighten you.



With a general persuasion to think in this way is not possible that the owner herself has a tendency to believe in similar things, that her explanantion would be biassed by that train of thought?

As for my remark being odd, it's far from odd. They blame witchcraft, are we to assume she is the only occupant of that area not to believe in such forces? I doubt she is, and again would say that with a tendency to believe in supernatural forces being at work it stands to reason that a small amount of bias would creep in to her explanation of events.

The fact it rained afterwards does lead me to think this was a freak weather anomoly. You seem intent on trying to find something that simply isn't there which leads me to believe you are perhaps easily persuaded?

I'm taking what I believe is the logical route. There are umpteen reports of weird and wacky weather conditions causing localised damage. We had a tornado in Birmingham that ripped through a street and then disappeared. These things can last 5 hours or 5 seconds, either way is long enough to rip a roof off and leave other houses intact.

It makes no difference to me where it happens, I merely made a point that the train of thought with an incident such as this can be biassed by already existing beliefs - namely witchcraft.

I'm sure that took you an awfully long time to write - shame I stopped reading after

"You really haven't understood my statement have you?

Let me enlighten you." Lol

I just get wound up by people who condescend, but at least you left of the infamous for a change....

We'd already generally agreed the concenus was that it was freakish weather anomoly anyway, and not ONCE did I claim that it was witchcraft, in fact if you read the posts back properly you'll see I said I don't believe in it ... but just to end this madness.... I tore the frikkin roof off! There! End of!

Why do people get so wound up with a simple discussion on a discussion board?

Where I come from a little light humour and sarcasm is par for the course, so long as it doesn't become offensive. The thumbs up is what most would deem a smile, wink or nod, not a finger up to you and your views. Lighten up already.



I don't think you did, you responded to my witchcraft comment which came after that initial remark.

At no time do I say you think it may be witchcraft, I clearly say the people in that area and indeed the person making the report. You didn't read what I wrote, it's that kind of oversight that causes miquotes. The only reference I make to your conclusions are that you seem easily convinced.

*edit: I hope my comments don't offend you, it makes a change to dicuss without having to justify my stance. Please don;t see my remarks as condescending..I just think my humour is of a different breed to yours, both equally welcome.*

This is just for you....

No, you just didn't express youself clearly.....

Now begone before I huff and puff and blow your roof off and blame it on witches!

You posted too quickly!

You cheeky b*gger

As Kismit pointed out, I myself am a pagan and proud of it. I have dabbled in witchcraft but nothing too hefty. So that's why I was a bit astounded that people were ascribing an anomolous weather event to witchcraft.

I appreciate that in the vicinity, witchcraft is more commonly accepted as a powerful force, but on this board, we discuss and put forward our opinions - usually with some kind of logical basis underpinning them.

I could quite possibly be persuaded that witchcraft caused the roof trouble, but on the face of it, it looks very unlikely and quite explainable in terms of freak weather.

As for the sparks, maybe a build up of static electricity in the area prior to the gust was to blame?

There isn't enough information to be able to work this one out at the moment.

Oh, and Isis-999, what's wrong with being warm?...

Spark goes off in the kitchen ---> roof blows off ---> gas leak???

or

Freak weather condition, the spark is lightning, the house possibily struck by freak lightning which causes the roof to blow off. ( I have seen a house near me that was struck by lightning and one side of the house just blew off leaving the rest intact..

or

Tornado or downdraft took the roof off. The spark in the kitchen was from some sort of stress from the event, ie pressure on the electricty circuit, a snagged wire as the roof blew away..

some facts to consider -

1. The house was being extended/worked on. Perhaps that included some roof work done, you can't after all do an extenstion without doing some sort of roof work..

2. We have no idea of the size of the house or the size of the land it sits on. It's quite possible that there is a couple of acres of space. A freak tornado could easily just affect one house in that kind of space.

Not having enough details on the house etc I can only speculate it was something similiar to this http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2004/m_soccer_tornado.php
A localised freak weather anomoly that vanished as soon as it appeared.

If I were to say i thought witchcraft was BS and those who practice it today are not practicing it the way we did in centuries before. What would you say to that?

Witchcraft only seems to work for those who beleive in it.

I feel left out, not having the gift of the slang of the British Isles, being a measly colonist. Ooh, let me join! It was the wicked witch of the west, you ruddy louts! I saw a picture of a red slipper in the bottom. So, it WAS witchcraft, but only of the technicolor Oz kind. That or a freak weather occurance.

Speaking solely from MY experiences with Hurricane Andrew in 1994 in South Miami, there were SEVERAL cases of(on one neighborhood block alone) 1 house being COMPLETELY destroyed, while the house next to it sustaining little or no damage whatsoever. Now granted there was no debating what CAUSED the damage in question, but there does exist a definite precedent for this sort of anomoly.......either that, or the "blow-the-s**t-out-of-the-little-house-in-Africa" incantation I released went terribly awry.........oooops!!

When I was taking meteorology (way too much calculus for comfort) we spent a lot of time on hazardous weather phenomena. One of the points that was made in tornados and hurricanes was that a house could be completely destroyed and the surrounding houses mostly unaffected. There's been many documented cases of that, almost just as many as there's been hurricanes and tornados.

A microburst could be another explanation of it. And with her roof blown off, any exposed wiring could certainly have sparked. She's lucky her house didn't burn down.

Around here, we routinely get gusts of 60-70 mph. One such gust all but destroyed the front door of our guest house. My previous apartment had a window in the bedroom blow out during one of the gusts. So hardly anomalous or witchcraft.

Also, the woman DID say she was more prone to believe it was just weather rather than witchcraft. Though having seen many news articles about witchcraft in Africa and how prevalent that fear is, I understand why people would think that.