FLOODS SPREADING IN ENGLAND

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25139, 21 March 1947, Page 7

FLOODS SPREADING IN ENGLAND

More Rain Forecast

35.000 ACRES OF FARM LAND UNDER WATER

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) z (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, March 20.’ The flood situation in Britain is more critical as water continues to surge through breaches in river banks, rushes on to more towns and villages and swamps new acres of open country. Among the “vers reported rising last night are the Severn at Worcester and Shrewsbury, the Derwent, in York-shu-e, and the Wye at Hereford. The Dep is also in full flood and is still rising. Meadowland in places is covered to a depth of 14ft, and 35,000 acres are inundated. The position in many parts of the Thames valley and East Anglia is still critical. The struggle to keep the weirs in the upper reach of the Thames free of debris has become most hazardous. Men are clambering on catwalks already awash into the middle of the flooded river. „ A 10ft wave Poured over the bank of the Great Ouse at Eanth. m Huntingdonshire. Sappers and German prisoners with the aid of searchlights are desperately trying to prevent flie breach widening. The chief engineer to the Great Ouse catchment area said that it would take at least a fortnight to close the gap. He added that a 25-yard breach in the Wissey had flooded Hilgay and the West Fens. It is estimated that more than 100 square miles of the Fen country is under water. More rain generally is forecast.

Every county in England and Wales, except parts of Kent, is affected by snow, floods, or fallen trees. More than 3000 roads are impassable in places. Hundreds of farmers, who spent years building up their holdings, are faced with ruin.- It may take two or three years to dry some of the more badly flooded ground. The Welland, in the Spalding area, is already above the highest level previously known. It has flooded thousands of acres. Every farmer and farm worker in the area has been mobilised to fight the flood, and hundreds of farm vehicles are carrying sandbags to stem the flow, but the floods are winning the grim fight. The Ouse is more than 11 feet above normal at York and is expected to rise as the floodwaters come down four dales. The floodwaters at St. Neots. in Huntingdonshire, have fallen rapidly, and the Avon at Evesham, in Worcestershire, has dropped nearly two feet. Water three feet deep is sweeping through the streets of Bentley, a suburb of . Gloucester is also reported*flooded. Every route from Birmingham to central and south Wales is impassable. Many people who were still living in flooded houses were without gas or electricity this morning because their cellars were flooded. They were unable to reach the meters, and their money’s worth is now exhausted. At Worcester thousands of workers queued for boats and buses to ferry them across the 300 yards’ stretch of flooded main road. The flood water has cut the city in two. The Derwent overflowed its banks at Malton and flooded large areas of Kirrounding country. Last night it

was only 2ft below its previous highest level, and was rising rapidly with heavy rain falljpg. The Thames, m the higher reaches, is stationary, but large areas remain flooded, and the water this afternoon cut the main London-Southampton . oad at Egham. Soldiers and German prisoners of war are working desperately day and night repairing river breaches in practically all the affected areas. They succeeded in many instances in preventing greater inundations and damage. From many parts of the flooded counties reports are reaching London of severe losses on all kinds of farms. A Reuter’s reporter who travelled in an Army “duck” in areas near Erith and Over, which are flooded by the Great Ouse, says: “Thousands of gallons of water are still rushing through the breaches in the river’s banks. Farmhouses, barns, haystacks, and bungalows have been turned into islands. The Fen is a sea of destruction as far as I can see, bro Wen only by strawstacks, trees, and odd buildings standing out from the water.” The reporter’s “duck” rescued a 56-year-old farmer, Mr Jack Burley, his son and daughter. The water was four feet deep in their farmhouse. Mr Burley saidr “I have been a farmer on this land for 36 yeqrs. This is the greatest tragedy I have known. My farm is a ruin.” The only possessions the Burleys were able to save were a few clothes, a crate of eggs, and a cat. The reporter says that the floods’ disaster lies in thousands of acres of fertile land rendered useless, perhaps for years, and tons of potatoes, other vegetables, and cattle food now lying ruined under several feet of water.