WINTER GALES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 71, Issue 36, 22 November 1950, Page 5

WINTER GALES

MUCH DAMAGE IN EUROPE

(Rec. 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 21. Europe’s first fierce gales of the winter surged in from the Atlantic today, sinking at least one ship, strand,ing another, and leaving others in distress. Winds and torrential rains caused floods, landslides and other damage in Western Europe. The 1650-ton Norwegian steamer Kul heeled over, in a Üb-mile-an-hour storm off Sweden, and sank, .with a cargo of iron ore. The crew Of 17 escaped by lifeboat. The 8000-ton British cable ship Monarch and other ships raced to the rescue of the small Israeli freighter Japos, reported out of control in mountainous seas, 200 miles off the French port of La Rochelle. Later, the Japos signalled she was out of danger. Four ships, two Danish, one Swedish and one Norwegian, asked for assistance in Danish waters. A Polish ship reported being stranded on Saltholm Island, between Denmark and Sweden. Torrential rains during the past few •days caused considerable damage and*, much flooding along the French-Swiss i border. A landslide, the second within a week, cut the Simplon Tunnel railway in Switzerland to-day, delaying the Orient express for several hours. Two sisters, aged four and nine respectively, were killed by a slab of concrete, blown from a church near Salerno in Southern Italy, when leaving after morning mass.' Rain flooded suburban roads around Rome and in other parts of Italy. The Helsinki radio reported 20 degrees of frdst, add communications and traffic upsets caused storms in Finland. —Reuter.