R.A.F. “ON TOP” IN SCOTLAND

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 11

R.A.F. “ON TOP” IN SCOTLAND

Rescue Work After Blizzards

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, January 20. The Royal Air Force was reported today to be “on top” in the battle of the snow-bound Scottish Highlands, where thousands have been marooned in one of Britain’s greatest freeze-ups. Commander D. G. Parker, who is in charge of all rescue operations, said: “We are really on top of this thing now.” Throughout yesterday helicopters whirled out over the silent wastes to drop food and medical supplies and to pick up ill persons. Other aircraft dropped stock food while jets whistled all over the desolate areas looking for those needing aid. The helicopters, some using the aircraft-carrier Glory as a base, dropped one and a half tons of food and delivered mail and newspapers. Other aircraft dropped food and stock fodder to 20 villages.

An emergency appeal for supplies of .hay and straw to meet “an almost catastrophic’’ fodder shortage in Wales and north-west England was made last night by the president of the National Farmers’ Union (Sir James Turner). He asked farmers who had harvested hay and straw to release as much as they could at the lowest possible prices. The appalling weather in recent months had created conditions of neardisaster in the north and west, he said. Many farmers had already been forced to cut herds and flocks.

A dense cloud of smog—smoke-laden fog—settled over the London area last night. Visibility was reduced to 15 •yards, and road traffic was dislocated. Services at London airport were brought to a standstill. Airliners from the Continent were diverted to Blackbush, in Hampshire. The smog is likely to persist until the morning.

France and Germany faced fresh flood dangers last night as swollen rivers fed by snow threatened to rise further

The greatest danger was in the Paris region, where the Seine is still rising and water lapping doorsteps in the suburb of Passy. Workers packed sandbags along the Paris embankments while a number of bridges along the Seine were closed to traffic as the current bit dangerously into their foundations.

In the lower Rhone valley the river is overflowing its banks for almost three miles on each side. All navigation on the Seine between Paris and Le Havre has been suspended, and on most of France’s other main waterways river and canal traffic has been stopped or seriously reduced. One of the most critical areas is the valley of the Garonne, where flood levels of 32ft were reported. Royal Air Force planes from Wahn, near Cologne, joined German police in relief work in the Rhine valley, where flood conditions are the worst in 50 years. Parliament buildings at Bonn, bolstered with 40,000 sandbags, could only be reached on the Rhine side by boat.