SNOW COVERS BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27589, 21 February 1955, Page 11

SNOW COVERS BRITAIN

Helicopters Give Relief

(N-Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, February 19. Heavy falls of snow in Scotland today started up helicopters and transport planes in the second/ “Operation Snowdrop” in four weeks. Long-range Shackleton aircraft from the Royal Air Force base of Kinloss on Scotland’s west coast took off to scour the blizzard-hit Orkney Islands for appeals for help written in the snow by stranded farmers.

The Air Force is keyed up to repeat last month’s airborne relief service to the lonely hamlets and farms of Northern Scotland, isolated by snow drifts on the main roads.

Helicopters have been picking up medical cases and flying in repair men to fishing villages on the storm-bound coast whose power was cut off in yesterday’s blizzards. Elsewhere in Britain there was no sign of any yielding in the big freezeup and more snow with 20 mile-an-hour winds was forecast in many districts for tonight In Norfolk, motor coaches, cars and lorries had to be dug out of snow drifts after a blizzard and cattle in the open were seriously short of food. A farm worker at Houghton *§t. Giles, was killed when a lorry skidded and crushed him against a wall. Week-end motorists were warned that they would face blizzards, snow and ice on nearly all the roads of Britain.

Two little girls who trudged through the snow with crusts for an old horse they loved crashed into an ice covered pond and were drowned. Susan Martin, aged seven, and Patricia Kirby, aged eight, were still holding hands when their bodies were recovered from the pond near Doncaster, Yorkshire, three hours later." Mrs Harriet Kirby said: “They thoijght the world of the old horse. They probably felt sorry for him out in the snow and took a big bag of crusts with them.”

Traffic Hampered Nearly all the roads in southern England were coated with snow and ice slowing heavy week-end traffic to half its pormal speed. In the West Country 15ft snow drifts still hampered traffic on several roads while in Eastern England a minor blizzard blanketed icy roads with up to 6in of snow.

Saturday sport has been hard hit. All racing is off with many football matches'and most Rugby games cancelled. Conditions in the northern-most Scottish counties have been described as worse than last month when villages were isolated for up to three weeks.

As the snow and ice belt spread further south yesterday, carpeting more than 70 counties in Britain, helicopter crews repeated last month’s “Operation Snowdrop” by picking up urgent hospital cases and dropping food to railwaymen digging out a goods train and engineers restoring electricity supplies. Snowfalls are also reported from most of Europe. The worst snowstorm for 30 years swept over Stockholm and central Sweden.

Two Air Force pilots died within a few minutes of each other when they crashed into the ice barrier while coming in to land. Snowploughs had to clear runways on the Stockholm Airport before aeroplanes could take off. The winter’s heaviest snowfalls are reported from the western part of Switzerland with up to 15in in the Alps.