Storms And Spring Tides Lash U.K.

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29767, 9 March 1962, Page 13

Storms And Spring Tides Lash U.K.

(W.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, March 8. Raging spring tides whipped by a 90 m.p.h. hurricane crashed through the sea defences of the Cornish Riviera and Devon last night, spreading chaos and destruction.

All railway lines to Cornwall were blocked when the Devonian express was hit by a 60ft wave between Dawlish and Teignmouth, reported the “Daily Mail.” The driver and fireman were cut by flying glass when the wave smashed their diesel cab window.

The freak wave caused a landslide after the express had passed and a Trurq-to-Bristol train ran into the heap of rocks and earth blocking the tracks. No passenger casualties were reported. All along the coast, waves over 60 feet high smashed into sea-front houses, shops and hotels and drove hundreds of people from their homes. Roads were blocked, sea walls holed, and fishing boats flung ashore and wrecked. At the height of the storm and high tide three cars were trapped in floods at Slapton Sands. Devon, said the newspaper. The occupant of one. a middle-aged man, stag tered through the water to an inn. As he reached safety, he saw his car lifted by a wave and carried out to sea. Early today, rescue squads were trying to reach the other cars and their occupants. Families Evacuated At Penzance and Newlyn, Cornwall, huge waves sent spray flying over four-storey hotels. Seas ripped slates off cottage roofs. Many houses

were flooded to a depth of four feet. Power was cut off. Hundreds of families were evacuated before the spring tide struck, but hundreds more people refused to leave theii homes.

At Perranpqrth, a man was killed when his caravan blew over on him as he tried to secure it.

Torquay and Paignton sea fronts in Devon became lakes, said the "Daily Maii,” and at Exmouth the promenade was blocked by huge sandhills after the tide receded. From the Scilly Isles, in the Atlantic off Land’s End, the newspaper’s correspondent telephoned at the height of the storm:'“AU we can do now is pray. Hughtown is awash and 40 houses are flooded.”