LIVES LOST IN STORM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 822, 16 November 1929, Page 9

LIVES LOST IN STORM

GREAT FLOOD DAMAGE IN BRITAIN 1 HILLSIDE GIVES WAY RUGBY, Thursday. I he toll, of life taken in ATondav’s \ Rale cannot yet bo fully estimated. It j was thought that only three lives had 1 been lost in the disaster to the North Sea fishing fleets, but latest informa- : tion indicates that there were 31 ! deaths. Many of the boats engaged now ; carry wireless sets, and a broadcast j warning of the approaching storm on- ! abled some of them to haul in their j nets in time. T he disaster has not caused a general stoppage of fishing, and many of th»‘ boats put to sea yesterday. On land great, damage lias been done by floods, notably in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. A large part ot a hillside at. Pontygraith -gave way owing to the inundation yesterday. Fissures sft wide and 70ft long were discovered in the face of the hillside, and a whole mass of thousands of tons of earth moved steadily downward. Ten families occupying houses in the direct path of the landslide were yesterday ordered to leave their houses immediately. A record rainfall for England and Wales was recorded at Pontypridd, where B.Sin. was registered in 24 hours. On the upper reaches of the Severn iwo bridges have been destroyed. Heavy losses of livestock and crops are reported from Staffordshire and Lancashire.