THE FLOODS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 76, 10 January 1928, Page 5

THE FLOODS

LONDON LOSS OF LIFE. MANY HEROIC RESCUES. PEOPLE TRAPPED IN BASEMENTS. . (Per Press Association —Copyright.) LONDON, January 9. Though there will be a danger of a further catastrophe until Tuesday night, there was no recurrence of the floods on Sunday night. Details which are accumulating emphasise the horror of the tragic happening, which was increased by the total unpreparedness of the victims. “Good God, the ri.ver is overflowing! Quick! The children!” cried one woman, to her sleeping husband. This is typical of the first warning in many homes. The terror was increased by the failure of the lighting. Galloping mounted police gave the warning in many eases and in others police or firemen were quickly on the scene, otherwise many more would have been drowned as sleeping in basements is common in the; poor districts near the rivor. - ■ „ The trapped men and women in Westminster must have known their doom as surely as sailors in a sunken submarine. The heroine and' hero of the tragedy were Miss Frankie Isse and Frank Wellsher. The woman awoke to find her bedroom half full of water, the furniture floating around. She escaped through the window and found a boy drowning. She tied a rope to him and hauled him to safety. Wellsher lost his life trying to rescue people in a Westminster basement. He was a champion swimmer and brought several men and women to an upper floor. He returned to the basement, but the door banged behind him and was held by the force of the water, so that Wellsher was unable to escape again . The full extent of the damage is. only slowly being revealed. Billingsgate Market and Thames Street are flooded, the position being very serious. A Yeoman of the Guard, sleeping in a dungeon of the Tower of London, awoke to find liis trestle bed floating and when he jumped out it was into four feet of water.

Insurance experts point out that insurance for the damage is not recoverable unless specified in the policy. Members of poor homes will be the greatest sufferers. Beds and furniture are covered with filthy slime and pianos and other valuables are spoiled. The occupiers of some wrecked homes earned a considerable amount of money by charging fees to curiosity mongers. Tims women stepped from luxurious cars and paid half-crowns to see real, life chambers of horrors with broken doors, overturned furniture, and drying] bedding. Much of the damage is not so serious as was at first feared. Alarming reports spoke of damage to the pictures at the Tate Gallery running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. It is true that many sketches, including some by Turner, were engulfed, but Sir Charles Holmes, Director of the National Gallery, says they survived better than anyone had hoped. Most of the Turner sketches were pencil outlines without public interest as real treasures. They were exhibited on the ground floor, where the uninjured sketches are drying nicely as they were promptly laid out on the floor of the Gallery, and the corners pinned down to prevent crinkling. A dozen Landseer paintings were seriously damaged, and this is probably the worst loss at the Tate Gallery. The water- poured through l a breach in the river wall into the Hurlingham polo ground at Putney and the tennis courts at Ranelagh. The bursting of a sea wall at Maldon, in Essex, also caused serious damage. The River Colne overflowed its banks at Colchester. Fifty motor-cars parked for a dance near Maldon were found by their owners in four feet of water.

TIDE BORE FROM NORTH SEA. THEORY AS TO CAUSE OF "FLOOD. (Per Press Association—Copyright..' (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, January 9. Lord Desborough (Chairman of the Thames Conservatory Board) expresses the opinion that the floods were not due to Thames waters hut to a tidal bore rushing, from the North Sea. Before Christmas day the Thames flow rose from 4,500,000,600 to 9,000,000,000 gallons. This would have caused the biggest flood for manyi years if the Christmas snows had thawed quickly. Fortunately the frost held till the river re-declined to 4,500,000,000 gallons. Saturday’s was the highest tide over known in the Thames. The only way to check the inflow of such " tides was the adoption of a scheme he had recommended 20 years ago—a barrage in the river - from Tilbury to Gravesend. This would produce a beautiful reach of water from Tilbury to Teddington, always clean, and deep, and usable for the whole length.

CO-OPERATIVE RELIEF FUND. A LESSON FROM DISASTER, (Per Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, January 9. The Lord Mayor of London conferred with the Mayors of affected districts and decided on a co-operative. relief fund, to which cash donations are pouring in, as well as large quantities of bedding and clothing. The Bishos, of London (the Rt. Rev. Dr. A. F. Winnington-Ingram), speaking at Bournemouth, said that if the dismal folly, wickedness and danger of basement dwellings were shown by their being sivept away, the calamity had not been in vain.