What did he say?" and the wind squall off the ocean blew stronger, scattering papers and maps and adding its own sudden savage bluster to the general din.
He goes on to quote: "A freak wind squall" blew down the Ferris wheel, killing 24 and dooming the resort.
He then reflects: "An entire resort about which I knew nothing, and now I cannot get that freak wind squall out of my mind".
Tragedy came in 1924 when a freak wind squall blew down the Clason Point Amusement Park's Ferris wheel (on the site of Shorehaven Beach Club, now endangered), killing 24.
In July 2007 it provided decision support to prevent a cascading failure after a wind squall tripped two 500 kV and three 220 kV transmission lines from Taiwan nuclear power station.
The inquest also heard from Tony Kirkham, head of arboretum at Kew, who said the "branch deluge was triggered by a wind squall" with gusts of up to 30mph.
Wind squalls that howled down the mountains above Maui, Hawaii, were so severe that the opening round of the Tournament of Champions was scrapped.
By 9 p.m., Earl was about 160 miles south of Cape Hatteras, and was steadily marching forward, unleashing severe rain squalls and gusts of wind along the Outer Banks By the time the fringes of the hurricane hit, some parts along the coast of North Carolina were so deserted they were nearly silent.
Weather radar images showed a severe squall line had formed to the west, and weather stations to the west reported cumulonimbus clouds and thunderstorms.
A3 NATIONAL A10-15 Hurricane Frances Hits; Florida Endures Storm 2 Hurricane Frances relentlessly enveloped most of Florida in severe squalls, lashing rain and scattershot destruction.
Other locations reported similar gusts and strong winds in squalls.
