Snow, Gales Lash Western Europe

Press, Volume C, Issue 29671, 15 November 1961, Page 19

Snow, Gales Lash Western Europe

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) • LONDON, November 14. Storm havoc reports poured in from all parts of western Europe yesterday as winter hit the British Isles and the Continent with gales, snow, rainstorms and avalanches.

Ships were torn from moorings, and services were delayed and disrupted. Raging seas gashed coastal communities and made roads impassable, and there were a number of narrow escapes in alpine snowslides. Off the treacherous Goodwin Stands, the crew of the crippled East Goodwin lightship battled to save their vessel, held only by an emergency anchor cable after breaking adrift. Dover lifeboat stood by as the seven - man lightship crew waited anxiously for mountainous seas to abate and allow a maintenance ship to pass them a spare anchor chain.

Highlights of the storm scene on the Continent included: — Italy.— Five men were buried in snow when they leaped from a lorry as a landslide pushed it into a 250 ft ravine in the Oasta Valley of the north-west Alps.. They struggled clear unhurt. The occupants of another lorry and two cars also managed to get clear.

France.— A. rescue team from Nice saved nine tourists, including three children stranded in a snowstorm in the foothills of the Alps. West Germany.— Easterly gales raised the water level in Kiel harbour by about 3ft and the waterfront road had to be closed to traffic. Holland.—AH shipping

either hove to, or was forced to stay in harbour as wild seas caused suspension of pilot services at the entrance of the Scheldt, at the Hook of Holland and also Rotterdam’s new waterway outlet to the sea.

Central Spain.—Temperatures as low as 20deg. were recorded.