The English Blizzard

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 113, 17 March 1891, Page 2

The English Blizzard

THE STOBM STILL AT- ITS HEIGHT.

SHOCKING LOSS OF LIFE ON LAND AND SEA. LP"SR UNITED PBESS ASSOCIATION..' London, March 13 The severe weather which has been experienced duriner the past few days still continues, and shows no signs of abating. The Southern countries have suffered the most from the effects of fche snow storms, and the counties of Devon and Cornwall have been completely isolated for several days. The snowfall is the heaviest known for fifty years. Railway and telegraph communication is interrupted in all directions, and work on many of the lines has been suspended altogether. Trains which left railway stations on Monday night, and which encountered fche full force of the storm, are still buried in the snowdrifts. The passengers were rescued from the carriages and taken to the adjacent villages, where they are being provided with food and shelter until they are able to resume their journeys. Six trains are buried between Exeter and Plymouth. Near Dartmoor, in Devonshire, a train was embedded in a snow drift for two days. During that time the passengers were without food, and fche work of rescuing them could only be carried on wifch great difficulty. When reached fchey were in a pitiable condition. The weather off the coast is very heavy, and numerous shipping casualties are reported. The Liverpool barque Dryad went ashore on Start Point and became a total wreck. Twenty-four of those on board were drowned, The ship Calcutta was wrecked while entering Plymouth Haven, and 18 of her officers and crew were losfc. The pipes which supply Plymouth W'fch water became choked with snow, which froze hard, and 500 soldiers and navies are now engaged in clearing them. Over one hundred deaths by land and ' sea have already been recorded, and the number is increasing every day. The storm is raging with renewed vigor in the Western Counties. One hundred and sixty navvies are clearing snow from fche Railway Station at Plymouth. The American ship Servia is missing, and it is supposed that she has been disabled, and is drifting about in the Channel. March 14. Four vessels have been wrecked off fche Start and 53 persons drowned. Fourteen vessels, including several large steamers, have been totally lost or severely damaged on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall. The storm has now ceased. The express which left Paddington Station on Monday did not arrive at Plymouth till Friday night. A hundred passengers were rescued near Okehampton, after being buried in a snowdrift for 24 hours. The American ship Servia is safe. March 16. Five thousand sheep have beeu frozen to death on the hills in Wales.