WORST FLOOD FOR YEARS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24797, 11 February 1946, Page 5

WORST FLOOD FOR YEARS

RAIN AND GALES IN BRITAIN

(Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 10. The worst flooding for 40 years after several days of rain and gales has caused serious damage, particularly in the Midlands and North Wales. Many main roads are impassable, and the lower floors of houses in many towns are under water.

The whole London, Midland, and Scottish railway service to Scotland and Lancashire is blocked as the result of a washout 10 miles north of Stafford, where the river Sow burst its banks and undermined the stone foundations of the track. Washouts also cut the Southern and Great Western lines at several points. The worst gale for 50 years swept across the Midlands, leaving a 150mile trail of floods, and uprooting trees and damaging houses. Gales blowing in the Straits of Dover reached a hurricane force of 90 miles an hour, buffeted ships, drove 33 to shelter at Deal, and suspended the Channel leave boat service. The sun shone brightly this morning in London and the Home Counties. but debris from shattered chimneys, roofs, and broken windows lit-" tered many streets. Lake Bala, in the Welsh mountains, burst its banks and inundated valleys. The town of Bala is marooned in the centre of a 25-mile stretch of water. Hundreds of the inhabitants are traoped, including ,aged people. The river Weaver, farther south, in Cheshire, burst its banks and inundated Winsford to a depth of three feet, threatening to cut Nantwich into two. An area 25 miles east of Merioneth is submerged and several villages are isolated. Twenty hours of ceaseless rain completely dislocated rail traffic at Crewe. More than 200 inhabitants of Stafford have been rendered homeless by the floods.

There was large-scale flooding at Stockport, also in Derbyshire and the Severn Valley. In Cheshire owners had to wade into the floods to try to save their livestock.

’ Large areas of western Germany and Holland are sharing Britain’s flood danger. Rhine traffic across all bridges except the new Montgomery bridge has been suspended. Floods are threatening Dusseldorf and Duisberg and thousands of. aeries of farmland round Herford are under water, forcing the evacuation of many Germans and further aggravating the acute housing shortage and food supply.