FLOODS AND SNOW.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 455, 13 March 1909, Page 15

FLOODS AND SNOW.

VILLAGE ENGULFED BY MOVING

TRAIN SNOWED UP FOR, TWO NIGHTS

Impelled by heavy floods bohind it a bog, thousands of acres in size, on Mount Mary, Kilmorc, near Bnllygar, Co. Galway, began moving on Sunday, Jautmry 17, and engulfed tho village of Kilmoro and several farms at the foot of the mountain.

The village is entirely destroyed, and the peoplo's homes lost to them for over, the houses being covered up to tho ridge tiles by the seething mass. .

Enrly on Monday morning when Mrs. Martin opened her front door sho found tho house surrounded by liquid bog. Sho alarmed her husband mid it took their united efforts to savo their childron. All their stock had to bo abandoned. Tho occupants of the threo neighbouring houses narrowly escaped with their lives, and had not time even tc dress themselves.. The body of a Mrs. M'Donnell, an old roman, who was overwhelmed in her house, was recovered by a man who let himself down by a ropo into the interior of her ruined house. Sho had evidently been overwhelmed in her sleep, as she was found close to her bed, and attired in her nightdress. Her son, a corporal in tho sth Dragoons, was present when tho body was recovered, and being worn out by tho long search for her remains, he fainted, and was onlv with considerable difficulty removed to safe ground. . • Several of tho small farmers lost all their etock. One man had to rush out of the house with his; family practically naked, and had no time to relqaso his six head of stock from an outhouse. " Tho house was shortly after engulfed. To provide accommodation for the homeless families tho vacant castle of Aughrane, formerly tho family seat of the Bagot family, was utilised.. Eighteen families,consisting of eighty individuals, were, provided with two rooms eacli.' ■ ' "'. ■ .;.-.- Snowed Up. -. During the week-end a heavy snowstorm completely blocked the West Highland Kailwav from Glasgow to Fort William. x ' A train.woe held up at Bannoch, on the trackless moor of tli.it name. Tho carriages, were steam-hcated, ., but, the twenty passengers were short of food. Tho railway officials supplied hot tea, and what efttables they could spare, and Mr. D. Macpha.il,' a passenger, who had ajargo cako and a bottle of wi.no in his bag, ■'. shared "it--with his comHo had his bagpipes, too, and throughout the night played spirited airs. Next morning; the train struggled to Corrour,'a station 1300 ft. above the sea-level, where the track was again blocked. Tho signalman did his best 'for the wornout passengers, some- of whom removed a case of sausages from tho van and cooked them. They were kept again all night till gangs of men from Fort William cleared the drift. So violent was the blizzard at Huddorsfield that Moore,'a player from York in a Northern Football League match, had to leave the .field with a frozen arm. Thousands of acres in Donegal, Derry, and Tyrone were flooded to a depth of three' or four foot, and hundreds of cattle have been lost. ' For miles around Strabane and Lettorkenny railway traffic , , was suspended. Scores of pasGeiigers at tho former town found the station their only refugo. The stroete were running rivers, and the peoplo fled to tho iippor stories of .their dwellings. ' Boats were plying an the streets of Strabaue and the postmen were handing in letters through tho bedroom windows at the end of a pitchfork. A similar plan-was resorted to by Mr. Gallagher, J.P;, who sent round to tho beleaguered families loaves which were handed in from tho point of a pitchfork. The worst flooding in (Scotland was on the Tay'and its tributaries, the.Earn and tho Almond. .By the bursting of a fish pond miles of country on the latter/river were inand thirteen people were drive-n from thew'homes in the morning without being left t-iino to dress,,., . Many families''''■ were''driven from their homes in Perth by tho flooded Tay. Commercial Street, which runs parallel to t'he river, was blocked with water six feet deep. A •bridge has been swept away, and Strathenrn, the valley of the largwt tributary of the Tay, was flooded almost from end to end. There was three feet of water in a drawing-room at Cried. A colt belonging to Willfam Stirling, a farmer near Bathgate, got into difficulties within the flooded area, and in attempting to rescue it Mrs. Stirling and her broher-in" Jaw, James Stirling (who went to her assistance), were carried away'and drowned.