FLOOD DISASTER GROWS IN MAGNITUDE

Chronicle (Levin), 20 March 1947, Page 5

FLOOD DISASTER GROWS IN MAGNITUDE

Press Assn

' y Telegraph

.-Copyright

Received Thursday, 11.15 a.m. LONDON, March 19. Rain is falling today in many qf the flooded areas of England — heavily in some — inpreasing the perils and damage. Residents in many towns, as well as farming people, are being ,more and more endangered and marooned, and face enormous losses through damage to personal possessions. Gloucester's experience is typical of that of many towns fm the worst fiooded areas. The River Severn there was four inches above the level reached by it in the second worst disaster known — 1866 — and it is only four inches below the 1852 record. The outlook is described as "very grave."

The Severn at Worccester is at its highest recorded ievei. Thousands of workers there queued for boats and buses to ferry them aeross a 300-yard stretch of flooded main road. The floodwater has cut the city in two. The Derwent River overflowed its banks at Malton and flooded large areas of the surrounaing country. It is only two ieet below the previous highest level and is rising rapidly with the heavy rain falling. The Thames is stationary in its higher reaches, but large areas remain flooded and the water this afternoon had cut the main Lon-don-Southampton Road to Egham. Soldiers and German prisoners qf war are working desperately day and night repairing river breaches in practically all the affected areas. They have succeeded in many instances in preventing greater inundations and damage. Severe Farm Losses From many paros oi Lne flooded counties reports are reaching i_,oudon of severe losses on all kinds of farms. A Reuter reporter who travc-llcd in an army "duck" in areas near Erith and Over flooded by the Great Ouse states that thousands of gallons of water are still rushing through breaches in the rivers' banks. Farmhouses, barns, haystacks and bungaiows have been turned into islands. The Fens is a sea of destruction as far as the eye

can see, broken only by straw stacks, trees and odd buildings standing out from the water. The reporter's "duck" rescued a 56-year-old farmer, Jack Burley, and his son and daughter, who last night refused to leave their farmhpqse, but today the water was four feet deep in it. Mr. Burley said: "I have been farming 011 this land for 36 years and this is the greatest tragedy I have known. My farm is a ruin." The only possessions the Burleys were able to save were a few clothes, a crate of eggs and a cat. Fertile Land Nqw Useless 'The reporter says the floods' disaster lies in thousands of acres of fertile land rendered useless, perhaps for years, and potatoes, other vegetables and cattle food now lying ruined under several feet of water. The River Welland, in Spalding, is aiready above the highest level previously known, and is still rising. It has fiooded thousands of acres. Every farmer and farmworker in the area nas been mobilised to fight the flood and hundreds of farm vehicles are carrying sandbags to stem the flow, but the floods are winning a grim fight. Hundreds of farmers who spent years in building up their holdings are faced with ruin. It may take two or three years to dry some of the - more badly flooded ground.