ENORMOUS STORM

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1928, Page 2

ENORMOUS STORM

ENGLAND FLOODED. CHEAT DAMAGE DONE. (Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, Jan. C. Britain’s experiences in the way of unusual weather have now been increased to a day-long hurricane, the wind blotting at the rate of from 60 to 85 miles an hour. The hurricane is suspending the cross-Channel air services, and turning the Hooded districts of the Thames Valiev into a storm-toss-ed sea. In consequence of this, it is difficult to manoeuvre the boats which are the only means of transport. There has been widespread damage done over the whole country. Hoarding, chimneys and masonry have been blown down. Trees have been uprooted and windows blown in, while the telephone services are disorganised. Thirteen persons have been injured in London. People found a child crying beside the debris of a blown-down wall at Kilburn, and a search revealed the child’s mother dead there. At Belfast, eight persons have been seriously injured. The gale fanned the liamcs of a farmhouse lire in Somerset, where the parents were trapped and incinerated after they had lowered their children and the grandmother, who fractured her leg, from a window.

HIGHEST FLOOD ON KECOBD LONDON, Jan. 7

The Thames embankment yesterday presented a remarkable sight, especially at Westminster. The water cataracted over the embankment parapet. It Hooded the foot of “Big Bon,” and the Old Palace Yard to a depth in some places of a foot. There wore miniature waterfalls at Cleopatra's Needle. The famous training ship “President,” and all other craft were floating above the sea level. The public subway near Westminster Bridge was flooded' to a deptli of four feet.

The tram cars wore brought to a standstill, and the electric lights were put out. The only spectators of these strange scenes were the policemen and belated dancers, and “down-and-outs” whose slumbers on the embankment scats were disturbed. These remarkable scenes were due to the combination of high tide with the flood water from the upper reaches of the Thames. All of the riverside gardens and lands between Teddihgtou Lock and Hammersmith Bridge were under water. This has been the highest flood in living memory. The water (lowed into the terraces of the House of Parliament and Milo the Commons Subway. Horseforry Hoad, Westminster, was Hooded to a depth of four feet. There were people rescued from their houses on horseback. One man was drowned in a basement room while bo was asleep. One taxicab, while standing outside a garage in Pago Street, was washed away. LONDON. Jan. 7. ’ Seven workmen were seriously injured by a scaffolding collapse at Belfast, where the wind blew during the storm at the rate of 57 miles an hour. TEN DISOWNED IN WESTMINSTER LONDON, Jan. 7.

Many of the houses in Stamford St., which runs parallel 1o the river Thames leading to Waterloo Station, were inundated by the flood. Three hundred women and children took refuge In a chapel. One hundred and fifty men had to (.case work at. Hie Union Cold Storage premises when tins water readied the machinery. Colonel Day, a member of the Hoti.se of Commons, telephoned to the effect that the furniture in his flat at Westminster was floating about. A boy who was asleep ih a house at Broadwall, Binekfrinrs, was washed from hi.> bed. but lie managed to scramble to safety. Another victim of the floods was an elderly woman, w ho was drowned in the basement of a house in Custou Street, close to Vauxliall bridge. There were firemen engaged in pumping out the basements at 3.30 o’clock this (Saturday) morning. The tide then turned, thus helping to save the situation. Residents of Ponsonby Place wore warned by a lighterman, who was hammering on the doois. The people rushed out ill their night attire.

It is believed that ten people were drowned in the Westminster basements, including a porter in Tate Gallery, and olhers at Putney and Hammersmith. The floods reached the Jewel Chambers in the Tower of London, and also reached Illackwall Tunnel and the Lambed) Palace.

Mounted police rescued terror-strick-en women and children in many of the low-lying streets, LONDON, Jan. 7. Taking stock of hist night’s amazing flood, it is believed that the death roll totals twenty. These include four sisters named Harding, their ages ranging from two to eighteen years. They were drowned in a Thames embankment basement. They must have been instantly overwhelmed. It was a night of terror ami trngedv between Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge.. -The flood slammed the door on a man who had returned to a. basement room for valuables and lie was drowned. The river steamers grotesquely rode the Thames at the street level. The underground railways are now dislocated by the floods, and the power houses are paralysed. Two servants were drowned in one basement at Hammersmith. Remarkable heroism was shown by Miss Frank Isse. After escaping from a flooded flat at Putney, she returned. Then, breaking a window, and .swimming around a room, she rescued several others. Nevertheless two in the place were drowned, and the bodies have not been recovered.

FATHER’S AWFUL ORDEAL. LONDON, Jan. 7. There has been no recurrence of the London floods to-day, hut the Port of London Authority lias issued a warning that the floods may ho repeated, as the tides are likely to increase till Tuesday. There are breaches in the Thames embankment wall. These have been temporarily repaired with sandbags.

The corrected death roll is now fourteen. A Tost of the deaths have occurred in Westminster, where the poor people in the tenements near the Houses of Parliament were the worst sufferers. Heroic efforts to rescue those imprisoned were made last night by the police and by neighbours, who went to the doors, arousing the sleepers. Mr Harding, an artisan. is the father of four girls who were drowned in their beds in one embankment basement. The father had a terrible experience. The girls were sleeping in one room in the basement. Harding himself rushed down and he heard the girls making pitiful cries to ~pen the door, but the water was so deep that all his powerful, prolonged, desperate exertions were unavailing and he had tq giro up the attempt fine! go upstairs

to rescue his wife and his other children .

Priceless pictures boused in the basement of the Tate Gallery, mostly Turner sketches, were soaked, and it is feared that many of them are ruined. This is the most sudden and serious flood in London in living memory. “The Observer” describes the flood as the worst shock to London's complacency since the war. revealing -r parfously weak spot in the defences of the metropolis, which cannot be impaired by the an ere extension and strengthening of the Thames embankments. The Thames, it is pointed out. has developed a menace that lias been unkmfWn for upwards of a centalv. because the national system of land drainage lias fallen hopelessly in aircars.

DEATH BOLL. MOUNTING. LONDON. Jan. 7. After one recent blizzard and the floods, the British people were beginning to think that this winter bad been rather an exceptional one, when the whole country on Thursday was swept by a great gale, and at least five people were killed and many were injured. There also was widespread damage done. The wind swept over Spuruhead at the rate of 85 miles an hour. It was a much more moderate gale in London, but a. gust of 53 miles an hour was recorded at Kew. A woman was killed by the collapse of a wall at Killmni. The roof blown off a house killed a cyclist at,Northampton. A little girl was struck on the head by a packing case that had been blown from a van. am! she died at Peterborough. A motor cyclist was blown from his machine and was killed at Bromley. There are telephone poles and wires down everyw hcr e. The Peninsula steamer “Bazmak.” when she was leaving Tilbury dock for Bombay, was blown against the liner “Mooliim.” Skilful seamanship resulted only in a slight grazing of the Razmak’s bridge. The Thames embankment was flooded on Friday from the Tate Gallcry to Blackfriars. One person there was drowned, and it is feared there were four others drowned also.

A NIGHT OF TERROR. LONDON, Jan. 7. The Thames floods are imiprocedentod even in Richmond and Twickenham, where it has invaded the streets and traffic is suspended lower down the river. A convent at Jslesworth is marooned across flooded fields. \\ liter demolished -the walls of an ancient palace below' Richmond. A woman’s body lying in a coffin floated away.

The principal incinerators are Hooded. preventing the collection of garbage for several days. Kew Green and Royal Gardens also Chiswick, on the opposite side of the river, were severely damaged. At Fulham, high tide wafer rose above the stage at the theatre. Chelsea, and Plimieo districts arc inundated, the River breaking banks in the vicinity of the two places, fifty yards long.

Many living in these thickly popnlated districts were driven out of their homes. II was a night of terror, all through the flooded areas. In ono case a bedridden woman of 80 was caught in a basement. A man dived ill and found the lied floating against, the ceiling. Rescue was i 'ji possible. Escapees clad in liigbi 'clothes, crowded the streets. Children were terror stricken. Police reserves wore ,called out aid mounteds traversed the streets knocking doors and rousing the inhabitants. They rescued many on horseback from windows. A mail was trapped in a basement ut> Ponsonby .Place, A hole was rut in the floor of the room above and bo was lifted out unconscious. Swans swam in Horsoferrv Road. ENORMOUS FLOOD DAMAGES. LONDON. Jan. 8. The flood fortunately did not invade the underground railway, but trains were at a standstill. In Lambeth and adjoining districts, tllie whole streets were flooded and in the houses the water rose liaifway up the stairs. The flood probably is the worst from a financial viewpoint. Below Blackfriars. warehouse basements were fdle. The damage is unknown until the water is out-pumped. Waves swept over the bank outside the Tower and filled the ancient Moats Tower .which looks like its old soli after centuries. The waters mostly were fifteen feet deep and twenty upon tlie Guards drill ground.

Tim tidal wave worked havoc on the east coast. It swept whole colonies of beach huts seawards between Frinton, Walton. Clackton and the festooned village of Sabot. Seaweed marooned Brightlingsea and drove the residents at the River Blaekwater to the upper stories. It damaged the wharves at Strood, Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham. Many victims of the Thames flood including hundreds of owners of valuable motor cars which were inundated. Putney garages were amazed to find their insurances void. The companies contend the flood is an act of God.