GALE SWEEPS ENGLAND

Chronicle (Levin), 23 September 1946, Page 5

GALE SWEEPS ENGLAND

Pre§s Assn-Copyriqht

Heavy ToII Of Harvest THIRTEEN LiVES LOST

By Telegraph

Received Sunday, 7.30 p.m. LOXDOX, Sept. 22. The death roll in the great gale tvhich swept the Channel and South England on Rriclay before moving' 011 to northern (iermany, •numbered thirteen and at least 52 people were injured, says the Sunday Express. Thrce ships were stmk and i'our driven ashore. Farmers estimate that millions of juinnds worth of daniage was done to harvest lields. * Four thousand London teleTjliteic.s were put out of order and teleplione serviees 1o Ihe Continent rnterrupted. A report froni Frankfnrt states that at least nine people were killed when forty bonili damnged buildings collapsed under Ihe high winds. The worst September gales for years lashed the south coast toclay, while rivers in the north burst their banks I and flooded railway tunnels and houses, and closed schools and factories. f amilies in Yorkshire were maroonect ' in. their bedrooms as the water rose foiu i feet in the streets. Floodwaters sweeping down valleys carried away stock, corn, tirnber and live-stock. The Barwell and Blakewater Rivers overilowed their banks at many points and flooded five large areas of Blackburn to a depth of four feet. Mills and workshops were stopped. Workers evacuated several hundreci families marooned in the upper storeys uf their homes. Police in rowing-boats and firemen with escape ladders took them nioais, A large area at Keighley, where the rivers Worth and Aire join, is seriouslj Aooun , The Air Ministry repc/'ted that gusts of wind at the Scilly Isles reached 100 ■miles an hour. A 60-mile an hom: gale at Hastings ripped slates from houses and flattened fences. . A British tug, with her steering gear broken 12 miles from Hastings, sent out an S.O.S. Tlie destroyer Zephyr took her in tow. Three passengers were lost overboard when a great wave struck a ferry steamer en route to Southhampton from Jersey. The steamer battled on for five hours and reached port with doctors still giving first- aid to passengers, the injnries includiug a number of broken limbs. When a wave struck the Jersey ferry, the vessel rolled over until the sea flooded her decks, carrying ott three and also a quantity of luggage. Thirtysix were injured, including three sent to hospital. Others were bruised and cut. Lifeboats were busy on many parts oi the coast. Steamers are reporting difliculties in tlie channel. The British steamer Frumentos is reported un manageable south of St. Catherine Point. A tug foundered off Polkestone. A destroyer rescued the crew. The floods are most extensive in thf Midlands and N.ortli England, from where many towns are reporting street" under one to two feet of water.. Palmers who thonght tlie worst must sureIT be over saw their stooks and stacks re soaked, and found it necessary to teaithe stacks « apart to prevent danger from overheating. Two were killed when a tree fell on a car near Bristol.