FIERCE GALE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1938, Page 7

FIERCE GALE

DAMAGE & SEVERAL DEATHS IN ENGLAND DUTCH VESSEL AGROUND IN SOUTH WALES DISORGANISATION OF CHANNEL SERVICES (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 4. A strong gale and heavy seas seriously damaged property in all parts of England and resulted in several deaths. The steamer Princess Josephine Charlotte from Ostend, with 83 passengers, and the Shepperton ferry, with a cargo from Dunkirk, were unable to make Dover Harbour and recrossed the Channel to anchor under the lee of the French coast off Dunkirk. Nearly 2000 telephone lines in the London area are reported to be down. The toll of damage from the gale continued to mount during the day, and serious floods are also reported fro mthe north of England. The wind reached a velocity of eighty miles an hour at Blackpool, where nearly a mile of illuminations i and tableaux along the sea route have been wrecked. Trawlers could not enter Grimsby dock. The cross-Chan-nel services are completely disorganised. From the point of view of damage to telephone lines. Post Office officials describe the storms as one of the worst for many years. The 421-ton Dutch steamer Regina is aground of Sker rocks, on the South Wales coast, with nine men and one woman aboard, but the seas were so high that after bringing one man ashore rescue attempts were abandoned until the gale abated. A Press Association message reports that seven people have been drowned and another killed by a falling branch. Thousands are homeless.