THAMES OVERFLOWS ON LONDON

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 247, 9 January 1928, Page 1

THAMES OVERFLOWS ON LONDON

PEOPLE DROWNEDJN BASEMENTS SREATEST FLOOD IN SEVEN CENTURIES TERROR and tragedy and death came when the Thames, overflowing its banks, surged into London streets. The cablegrams bring a dreadful story of people trapped like rats and drowned in basements, of heroic attempts at rescue, of families tragically bereaved (in one instance four sisters perished together), and of incalculable damage. Historians say that the last Thames flood comparable with this one occurred in 1235, nearly seven centuries ago. By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright.

LONDON, Saturday. After the blizzard and the floods, the British people were beginning to think this winter was rather exceptional, when the country was yesterday swept by a great gale, and a number of persons were killed and many injured. There was also widespread damage. The wind swept over Spurn Head. Yorkshire, at a velocity of 85 miles an hour. It was much more moderate in London, but a gust of 53 miles an hour was recorded at Kew. The roof was blown off a house and killed a cyclist at Northampton. A little girl was struck on the head by a packing case that was blown from a van, and died at Peterborough. A motor-cyclist was blown from his

machine and killed at Bromley, Kent. Telephone poles and wires are down everywhere. The P. and O. steamer Razmak, of 10,600 tons, was leaving Tilbury Dock for Bombay when she was blown against the P. and O. steamer Mooltan, of 20,840 tons. Skilful seamanship resulted in only slight damage to the Razmak’s bridge. The Thames Embankment is flooded from the Tate Gallery to Blackfriars, and the Embankment presents a remarkable sight, especially at Westminster. Water rushed in a cataract over the parapet, flooding the foot of Big Ben and Old Palace Yard to a depth in some places of a foot. There were miniature waterfalls at Cleopatra’s Needle. “DOWN-AND-OUTS” DISTURBED The famous training ship, the President, and all other craft, are floating above the street level. The public subway near Westminster Bridge is flooded to a depth of 4ft. Tramcars were brought to a standstill and the electric lights were put out.

The only spectators of the strange scenes last evening were policemen and belated dancers and the “down-and-outs,” whose slumbers on the Embankment seats were disturbed. The scenes were due to a combination of a high tide with flood water from the upper reaches of the Thames. All the riverside gardens and lands between Teddington Lock and Hammersmith Bridge are under water. It is the highest * flood in living

memory. Water overflowed into terraces of the Houses of Parliament and into the House of Commons. People were rescued from houses on horseback. A man was drowned in a basement room while he

“ ~ was asleep. A Parliament Houses taxicab standing outside a garage in Page Street was washed away. Seven workmen were seriously injured by the collapse of a scaffolding at Belfast, where the wind reached a velocity of 57 miles an hour. The lower Thames floods are unprecedented. Even Richmond and Twickenham were invaded and street traffic was suspended. Lower down the river a convent at Islesworth was marooned in the flooded fields. Water demolished the walls of an ancient palace below Richmond. A woman’s body lying in a coffin was floated away. The principal incinerators were flooded, preventing the collection of garbage for several days. Kew Green and the Royal Gardens, and also Chiswick, on the opposite side of the river, were severely damaged. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES At Fulham the water at high tide rose above the stage of the Fulham Theatre. The Chelsea and Pimlico districts were inundated, as the river broke its banks near these places for a length of 50 yards. Many persons living in these thickly-populated districts were driven out of their homes. • It was a night of terror all through the flooded areas. In one case a bedridden woman of 80 was caught in a tffisement. A man dived in and found the bed floating against the ceiling, and rescue was impossible. Escaped persons clad in their night-clothes crowded the streets, and children were terror-stricken. The police reserves were called out, and mounted men traversed the streets knocking at doors and rousing the occupants, and they rescued many from windows. A man was trapped in a basement at Ponsonby Place. A hole was cut in the floor of the room above and he was lifted out unconscious. Swans swam across Horseferry Road in South-west London.—A. and N.Z.-Sun.