TOLL OF STORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 16, 19 January 1938, Page 7

TOLL OF STORM.

LAND AND SEA HAVOC. Over Thirty Lives Lost in Week-end Gales. SHIPPING FATALITIES. British Official Wireless. (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, January 18. The toll of life on land and sea during the week-end gale exceeded 30. Defences against the sea were washed away during the night at Aberystwyth, and further serious damage was done to houses on the promenade. Exceptionally high spring tides caused flooding in many coastal towns and river estuaries. "Watchers were on duty along the Thames during the night for the spring tide, which was the highest since 1928, owing to the piling up of water in the estuary by the gale. The river, how- j ever, remained confined within its banks. The destroyer Wolverine, which went to the assistance in the Atlantic of the 11,000-ton Royal Fleet auxiliary oiler, War Baliadua, which had her bridge, wireless aerial and boats swept away, escorted the oiler into Plymouth Sound. There were no casualties. The War Baliadua was navigated for 300 miles from the engine-room and made Plymouth under her o.vn steam. Her master said that they were lucky to be alive, after five days in tremendous straits, with little or no sleep. The Aquitania, which was due at Southampton from New York to-day. has been delayed by heavy weather in the Atlantic.