HURRICANE DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 31 January 1927, Page 2

HURRICANE DISASTER

EIGHTEEN KILLED. ('Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.] LONDON, Jan. 29. Fifteen deaths are directly and indirectly attributed to a great gale which attained a velocity of one hundred and two miles per hour at Renfrew. which is officially declared to ho most unusual. LONDON. Jan. 29. The gale has not abated in Scotland. The North <<f Edinburgh, Ireland and Sc-illy Islands are telegraphically isolated. There have been at least 18 deaths. 11 of which have been in Glasgow, where a boy was blown beneath a motor car and instantly killed. Reports from all over the country show that houses were unroofed, chimneys razed, pedestrians injured, and traffic Flocked by fallen trees. There are overflowing rivers, and swamped houses, and in North AValos there are flooded pastures. A chimney crashed through a threestoried factory at Dundee, burying a woman. The telegraph wires in Dundee collapsed under the weight of driven straw. A freight train overturned at AA'cxford, Ireland. Two hundred empty railway coaches were inadvertently started at Rippen(len Siding, and they crashed into an embankment, while travelling forty miles an hour. Twelve of the ears were wrecked. Casualties are feared in the Scottish fishing fleets. LONDON. .Tan. 29. Eight were killed and one hundred were taken to the hospital at Glasgow as the result of a gale, which raged all day, attaining a velocity of ninety miles ail hour.

The top of a tenement building fell, demolishing the successive floors, and tbe occupants, furniture, and the timber were piled up at the bottom. Four people were taken out dead. The collapse of a warehouse killed three.

Some brickwork fell fatally oil a girl’s head in. the street. The gale increased until tho afternoon. when large areas seemed stricken as by a bombardment. Debris littered the streets, and only people who were compelled to, ventured out rf doors. Two tramcars and many vehicles were overturned., The Ambulance Brigade worked like trojans all the morning, answering calls, but found It impossible to keep pace with the work when the gale reached its height. They then obtained assistance from outside ambulances. Large buildings in the centre of Hie city are now considered dangerous, and protective barricades have been erected.