GALES AND SNOW

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 106, 29 January 1935, Page 9

GALES AND SNOW

Cold Still Extends Over Wide Area EUROPE AND INDIA High Wind Causes Damage In Britain By Telegraph-—Press Assn.—Copyright. (British Official Wireless.) (Received January 28, 10.5 p.m.) Rugby, January 26. A furious gale, reaching 86 miles an hour, accompanied by storms of snow, sleet and hail, is sweeping the. British Isles. Tlie gale started early yesterday and is still continuing. Inland the wind uprooted trees, tore down telephone wires and electricity cables, in one case in the path of a train, and demolished hoardings and chimneys. Many roads were blocked with snow, ot which light falls occurred in the London area and heavy falls in northern and eastern counties. Several fishing vessels round the coast, unable to reach shelter before the storm broke, were in distress, but no lives have been lost. Among many acts of heroism reported was that of a doctor and nurse who crossed 10 miles of a raging sea, with an 80-mile blizzard blowing, to help an injured man on one of the Shetland Islands. The wind reached 90 miles an houi/ at Ilfracombe, Devon, this morning, smashing the arcade which is the main shopping centre and doing much damage to houses and fishing craft. Old residents describe the gale as the worst within their memory. > In tlie thick, of the storm guards were forced to precede their trains and scrape snow and ice from the electric rails before contact could be reestablished, a Press Association cable states. Drivers of buses in the West End had to shout the destination as tlie destination boards were obscured. A later London cable, dated January j,’B, states that more snow has fallen throughout Britain, and hundreds are skiing and tobogganing on the outskirts of London. Coastal shipping has been brought to a standstill by the gales, traffic has been slowed up on icebound roads, and cars have been abandoned. Telephone and electric lines and trees are down in the country. Heavy seas continued along British coasts over • the week-end, causing damage to shipping. Several trawlers and other small vessels were driven ashore, and lifeboatmen were on duty in many districts, tliq Clacton and Walton lifeboats battling for 12 hours in heavy seas in tlie Channel to save a disabled sailing barge. Paris is all white, and 4500 persons are engaged clearing the streets. In Yugoslavia railways are blocked. One goods train crashed into a ravine while an avalanche fell on another. In Montenegro towns are isolated and newspapers are not being distributed. Off Iceland a British trawler had its bridge and funnel swept away, and the mate was lost overboard. Natives have been frozen to death in the jungle near Karachi. Twenty are dead at Lahore and many are clustering round fires in Bombay streets. Calcutta reports that animals in Bengal have been driven into cultivated areas. Herds of as many as 200 elephants have bpen seen. GAS TANK ABLAZE . Firemen’s Desperate Fight London, January 27. The most dramatic feature of the snowstorm was the firemen’s desperate fight to' check the flames of a burning tank of crude gas at Wapping reaching nearby containers. The authorities decided that it would be unwise to cut off tlie source of the gas at Stepney, as it would not only plunge the East End into darkness but would empty the mains, which would soon be fliledwith air, threatening a terrific explosion. The police therefore ordered residents nearby to leave their homes. Hundreds of families trudged through the snowstorm. In the meantime searchlights played on Hie burning tank. Exhausted by the cold, a number of'the firemen, relieved every two hours, maintained a continuous wall of water between the tank and adjacent containers, while workmen dug up tlie roads to read) the 15-inch mains feeding tlie tank. They then drilled holes and inserted a rubber bladder, which, pumped up, blocked the mains without emptying the pipes. Later the fire was extinguished. The residents will probably return to their homes to-day.