STORMS IN GREAT BRITAINFEARFUL DAMAGE TO CROPS.

Kumara Times, Issue 949, 15 October 1879, Page 4

STORMS IN GREAT BRITAINFEARFUL DAMAGE TO CROPS.

We extract the following detailed cable messages from the New York Herald, which shews that fearful storms visited Britain after the San Francisco mail had left on the 14th ult.:— London, August 11, In reference to the storm of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday an editorial in the Evening Standard says :—“ This is truly a year of disappointments. When, after wet weather without duration, a brief period of fine weather sets in and farmers begin to look a little less despondently upon the situation, a storm of tremendous severity occurs and dashes all their hopes to the ground. Only a fortnight since a thunder and rain storm burst over the whole country. The swelled rivers flooded the lowlands, washed away crops, and committed terrible devastation. Now it is evident that the storm of Saturday has been equally as disasterous if it has not surpassed its predecessors in widespread ruin. The West of England experienced the greatest violence of the storm. There the rain fell for thirty hours without intermission. Bridges were swept away and miles of railway were washed up. Great tracts of country were flooded and the crops destroyed. Since the breaking up of the storm we have relapsed into comparatively cold weather. The thermometer has fallen greatly and the sky is overcast, so that there is no sun to dry such crops as struggled thus far through unprecedented climatic difficulties. Under such circumstances the most sanguine may well despair and it is certain that unless some great and unexpected change takes place ere long the worst anticipations will be verified. The storms from the United States arrive here unfailingly, but the great waves of heat which prostrated the people in America have somehow got lost during their passage across the Atlantic. The prospects for agriculturists are more gloomy at present than we can ever remember them.” The Post-master-General has issued a circular stating that owing to the obstructions on the Chester and Holyhead railway caused by the floods, there will be some detention to the Irish mails until the line is repaired, and that letters for the United States and Canda should be, as far as possible, posted in time to dispatch via Liverpool instead of being kept back for the supplementary despatch via Queenstown and Londonderry. August 21. The storm of Saturday and Sunday was succeeded by a short' interval of fine weather, about thirty-six hours. Yesterday, however, the storm, predicted in the cablegram sent by the Herald, arrived, and there was a renewal of the floods throughout the country, especially in North Wales, The Times contains reports of heavy rains along the valley of the lower Avon, which is overflowing and doing much damage to the hay. The Trent has also overflowed and has swept everything moveable away. Many tons of hay are to be seen floating down the river, and the people are beginning to be much alarmed at the floods. Great fears are entertaine at Burton-on-Trent on account of the water rising rapidly. Many acres of land are under water in the vicinity of Nottingham. The rivers have overflowed their banka in many parts of Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire, inundating the low-lying lands and render footpaths and turnpike roads impassable for pedestrians. Farmers say that incalculable harm has been done to the crops—iu fact they have been ruined by the continued storms. A gentleman writing to the Times says that more rain fell between nine o’clock on the morning of the 16th and nine o’clock on the morning of the 18th than has ever fallen in aa entice month for the last eight years, except September and October 1872. The rainfall was six and thirty-six one-hundredth inches during the two days, while during the month of September, 1872, it amonted to six and forty-seven one hundreths, and in October it reached seven and five one hundreths, A series of storms passed over Brighton to-day. The thunder that attended them was very heavy and the lightning exceedingly vivid. The rain fell in torrents during the whole time the storms took to pass over. Matters have assumed a very serious aspect, and it is now believed that the harvest will amount to very little. Some crops in Western Sussex are rotting and there is not the slightest hope of saving them. A Denbigh correspondent telegraphs that in the Yale of Clwyd the storms and floods have been the worst ever known. As the water subsides the damage to property and destruction of crops and live stock becomes more apparent. Immense quantities of hay have been carried away by the floods, and hundreds of cattle have been fonnd drowned. Thousands of acres of corn crops are under water, and in many cases farm-houses are completely cut off from the outer world. At Dover a heavy storm set in this afternoon, accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning. The rain was so heavy that nearly all the basements of the houses were flooded, A violent thunder and lightning storm also visited Sittingbourne, doing much dawage. Several houses were struck by the lightning, and one man was killed. The rain fell in torrents, flooding the whole district. The overflow of the river at Bath caused much inconvenience in the lower portions of the city. The river was never known in recent years to have risen to such an extent in the month of August. This has been the severest summer experienced in these islands.