DEATH AND DAMAGE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 261, 18 August 1931, Page 5

DEATH AND DAMAGE

THE GALE IN BRITAIN.

GIRL KILLED BY LIGHTNING.

WOULD-BE RESCUERS DROWNED.

SOME FAMILIES HOMELESS. United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.5 p.m.) LONDON, August 17. A trail of death and damage lias been, left by the worst August gale in 20 years. Seven campers at the Isle oi Wight, on returning to Portsmouth, tossed up for five places in a rowing boat, which was overwhelmed by heavy seas, three of the occupants being drowned. A child was swept off. Margate beach bv a huge wave. Henry "Robinson and Henry Aldndge, the latter a well-known and popular Labour worker, and a close friend of Mr George Lansbury, M.P., gallantly rushed in to save the child. Both were drowned. Rising without warning after torrential rains, the river White Adder swept over a dam near HuU ton (Berwickshire) on which eight labourers were working. Four of the men. all Irishmen, V including two brothers, were carried off and drowned. .* , A man and his twin daughters took refuge in the ancient Finsthwaite Tower, which was struck by lightning. One daughter was killed and the other knocked in- ; sensible. _• A nurse and a 14-year-old boy were drowned in, a swollen stream at Haddington, where 40 families ' are homeless owing to the floods. Yachts are still limping in from the Fastnet race. The Dorade has been declared the winner.

THREE BOATING FATALITIES.

BUNGALOW VILLAGE UNDERMINED.

(United Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 2.5 p.m.) LONDON, August It. Stormy weather was experienced along the South Coast to-day, with high winds and the roughest summer seas for many years. It is reported that three lives were lost in boating accidents off the Isle or Wight. ', It is also reported that the bungalow village which has grown up on the shingle beach near Winchelsea, the old Cinque Port, Sussex, has been cut off by waves, which threaten to xyndermine the foundations of the buildings. —British Official Wireless.

HAILSTONES LIKE GOLF BALLS.

LONDON, August 17./" Hailstones the size of golf balls pierced motor hoods, killed poultry, and smashed windows in East Anglia. The storm has caused great damage to crops throughout the country. Huge sheets of blotting-paper were among the devices used at Manchester in an attempt to prepare the wicket for the Test match. • In was the twenty-seventh wet weekend in 1931.