HURRICANE BATTERS ENGLAND

Chronicle (Levin), 18 March 1947, Page 5

HURRICANE BATTERS ENGLAND

Press \ssn.-Copyright

FOURTEEN DEATHS AND HEAVY DAMAGE i.

By TelegrcuoJt

Received Tuesday, 10.10 a.m. LONDON, March 17. Fcurteen deaths in the hurricane which swept England have now been reported and also widespread damage. Guests in London of 77 miles an hour and 724 miles an hour at Kew Observatory, the highest there since 1912, were recorded during the night's hurricane. A gust of 98 miles an hour recorded at Mildenhall is the highest in England.

A 65 miles an hour gust blew the roof from the kitchens of Downing College, ,at Cambridge University. V Numerous. Fatalities A bus at Stockton stopped because a fallen tree blocked the road, and immediately another tree fell on it, killing-two girls. A woman who was yesterday injured when the roof of a house in Birmingham fell in during the hurricane has died. | A falling brick wall at St. Taunton killed a girl aged ten. A nurse, I aged 40, was found dead outside her employer's premises at Reading. It is beiieved that she fell in a gust of wind and sulfered head injuries. A ventilating pipe in a street in Camberley snapped, struck and killed a young woman and injured her husband. ' A man and his wife were killed when a gale blew in the roof of a house in St. John's Wood. The husband's body was recovered after 90 minutes' digging and the wife's body 150 minutes later. j A woman lost her life when the roof of a block of flats collansed at Leamington. Her husband was severely injured. Falling trees at Cardington killed a motor-cyclist and a woman cyclist. A tree fell across the road at Hinckley, pinned the car, killed the driver and injured his wife and two children. I In the Leicester district a man was found pinned beneath a tree near his home. j Many Others Injured ' Among the many injured in various areas are a man and his wife wjio were rescued after spending seven hours in a iree above the flood waters at Walton-on-Thames. Sixteen Birmingham people were treated at hospitals, and many others were siightly injured. i Six Maidenhead policemen were swept into the Thames while trying to rescue families from the

floods. A major dived off one of the Sherman tanks which were being used for rescue work in several | piaces. He passed a rone to the police, who hauled themselves to safety. Heavy Damage ! An example of the damage done in many parts is a report from Birmingham that during the night the hurr-icane damaged 74 houses, ujl snops ana two cnurches. Vivid flashes of lightning iit the skies as the wind rinned off roofs ana brought chimney stacks crashing through houses. Firemen and helpers worked by floodlight to rescue trapped people. It was like tiie oiitz aays, said one. The National Fire Service is digging among the wreckage oi a number of buildings which collapsed in. a gale in various parts of London. It is searching for bodies in the debris of a fallen building in Woolwich and in the wreckage of a uuuoe wmen ccnapsea in KnDurn. A stock of timber crashed on some prefabricated houses in Lambeth. 'The occupants of the most seriously damaged prefabricated houses were absent at a public house, where the police found them and informed them of their escape ahd loss. j Flood Waters Still Rising At Windsor the Thames is ten miles wide and still rising. Water entered the gasworks and stopped supplies. The floods, which are as bad as the great nood of 1894, may continue as further rain and gaies are forecast for some days, though mild temperatures are exoected. The iatest report from the Fen country, which is the worst flooded district in Britain, states that the siuuaaon is very crmcal. Communications are cut, homes have ^oen evacuatea and 3U0 iroops have been called in to assist the resi-: dents