SEVERE STORMS IN ENGLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3040, 24 March 1881, Page 2

SEVERE STORMS IN ENGLAND.

Nothing like the severity and the suddenness of the wintry extremes experienced throughout England,and apparently throughout Europe during the latter part of January, has occurred within the memory of middleaged men. It was bitterly cold throughout Friday and Saturday, 14th and 15th January, it was colder on Sunday, and again on Monday, 16th and 17th January, but the air was beautifully clear j the eunshine was bright, if it was iced ; and the snow which coated the ground was frozen to the consistency of iron. In the course of the 17th there were signs of a change. The temperature rose a little, and during the night a heavy snowstorm came on. It was prolonged into, and it lasted throughout, the whole of the next day, accompanied by terrifically high winds. These had the effect of producing deep snowdrifts, and those portions of the streets which were left comparatively bare disclosed a thin coating of ice, which made them as slippery as glass, and rendered traffic dangerous or impossible. The gale was so violent and the snow was so blinding that it was almost as difficult to walk as it was impossible to drive. Whole stacks of cbiinneys were precipitated into the street. Men were lifted clean off their legs by the tempestuous blasts, and at the Albert docks two laborers were caught up by the force of the tornado, blown into the water, and drowned. The damage done and the sufferings sustained along the coast and throughout the province cannot yet be fully estimated, but can scarcely be exaggerated. The long pier at Southland was swept completely away ; the Admiralty pier afc Dover was much injured. News of wrecks and harrowing accounts of human misery come to us from every quarter. In London the distress in the poorer districts is apalling, while infinite discomfort and inconvenience are caused to the well-to-do by the freezing up of pipes, the bursting of kitchen boilers, and the scantiness of water. During Tuesday and Wednesday, 18th and 19th January, London resembled a great city in a state of siege. Communication from outside was almost entirely interrupted. No country letters came because the railways were blocked up. The trains in some cases did not start at all from the metropolitan termini; in others started but were compelled to abandon the attempt to arrive at their destination. Thus the locomotive which left Euston at 4.15 on the IBth January, and which was due at Birmingham about seven, could not get further than Willesden. Most of the passengers remained in their carriages hoping that the way might be suddenly cleared, and after having spent sixteen or seventeen hours on the line without moving, returned to the station whence they had started. The next day it seemed as if the milk supply of the capital, the greater portion of which is conveyed by train from some distance was about to fail, and the purveyors of that nutritious and indispensible fluid placed even their best customers upon half commons. The Thames between Hammersmith Bridge and Chiswick has been_ for some time a solid stationary piece of ice. Near Windsor ice completely covers the river between the Angler's Best and the Firework Ait, as well as the Navigation Cut between the South Western Bailway and Eomney Island : the approach to Windsor Locks being blocked with ice, which has formed in front of the Eton Brocae and upon the etili waters near the banks on e&ch side of thf stream, Tirgin& W?? find tfep Isk&i? rp4