NIGHT OF TERROR IN LONDON

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 85, 9 January 1928, Page 9

NIGHT OF TERROR IN LONDON

MOST SERIOUS FLOOD IN THE CITY IN LIVING MEMORY NUMBER OF PEOPLE DROWNED — !■■■— ■ I ■ THAMES OVERFLOWS ITS BANKS WIDESPREAD DAMAGE THROUGHOUT COUNTRY BY HURRICANE «■ — ■■■■■■ a The combination of a high tide with flood water from the upper reaches of the Thames caused the most sudden and serious inundation in London in living memory. It brought a night of terror to the inhabitants of the more low-lying portions of the city, and a number of people were drowned.

There has also been a severe gale in Britain, doing widespread damage, and causing several deaths, while many people were injured.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.

London, ‘ January 6.

Britain’s experiences of unusual weather have now been increased by a day-long hurricane, the wind travel ling at from 60 to-85 miles an hour. So fierce was the gale that it caused a suspension of cross-Cliannel air services, and turned the flooded districts of the Thames Valley into a storm-toss-ed sea, in which it was difficult to manoeuvre boats, which are the only means of transport. There is widespread damage all over the. country, hoardings, chimneys, and masonry having been blown down, trees uprooted, windows blown in, and telephones disorganised. Thirteen people were injured in London, some people found a child crying beside the debris of a blown-down wall at Kilburn, and search revealed the mother dead. At Belfast eight persons were seriously injured, The gale fanned the flames of a farmhouse fire in Somerset, and the parents were trapped and incinerated, after lowering the children and grandmother, who had a leg z fractured," from the windows. The Thames continued to rise during yesterday, and in the afternoon its. level at Shepperton Lock was the highest recorded there for 33 years. ,A further fall of 800 tons of earth his delayed the reopening of the Southern Railway line between Merstham and Coulsdon. It is hoped that normal traffic will be resumed on Monday.—Sydney “Sun” Cable.

STEAMERS COLLIDE AT ;■ TILBURY (Rec. January’ 8, 5.5 p.m.) i ’- London, January 6. After a blizzard and floods British people were beginning to think this winter ratheir exceptional, when the country yesterday was swept by a great gale, and at least five people were killed and many injured. There was also widespread damage. . The wind swept over Spurn Head at. 85 miles an hour. It was much more moderate in London, but a gust of 53 miles ah hour was recorded at Kew. A woman was killed by the collapse of a wall at Kilburn ;l a roof was blown off a house and killed ! a cyclist at Northampton; a little girl was struck on the head by a packingcase blown from a van and died at Peterborough; and a motor-cyclist was blown from his-machine and killed at .Bromley. Telephone poles' and wires are down everywhere. , The P. and O. steamer Razmak, leav-. ing Tilbury Dock for Bombay, was blown against the Mooltan. Skilful seamanship resulted in only a slight grazing of the Razmuk’s Bridge. The Thames embankment is flooded from the Tate Gallery to Blackfriars. One person was drowned, and it is feared that four other lives were lost. REMARKABLE SIGHT CRAFT FLOATING ABOVE street Level (Rec. January 8,: 5.5 p.m.) London, January 6. The Thames embankment is a remarkable sight, especially at Westminster, tHe water cataracting over the parapet, flooding the foot of* Big Ben and the Old Palace Yard to a depth in some places of a foot. There are miniature waterfalls at Cleopatra’s Needle. The famous iraining ship President and oil other craft are floating above street level. The public subway near Westminster Bridge is flooded to a depth of four feet. Tramcars were brought to a standstill and electric lights put out. The only spectators of the strange scenes were policemen, belated dancers, . and down-and-outs, whose slumbers on the embankment seats were disturbed. The scenes were due to a combination of a high tide with flood water from the upper reaches. All the, riverside gardens and lands between Teddington Lock and Hammersmith Bridge are under water, the highest flood in living memory. Water overflowed into the terraces of the Houses of Parliament and into th House of Commons. The subway of Horseferry Road, Westminster, is flooded four feet deep. People were rescued from their houses on horseback. A man was drowned in a basement room .while asleep. A taxicab standing

outside a garage in Page Street was washed away. Seven workmen were seriously injured by a scaffolding collapse at Belfast, where the wind was 57 miles an hour.— A.P.A. and “Sun.”

DEATH-ROLL INCREASING FOUR SISTERS DROWNEEI (Rec. January 8, 5.5 p.m.) London, January 7. Taking stock of, last night’s amazing flood, it is believed that the death roll is twenty, including four sisters named Harding, ranging from two to eighteen years, who were drowned in an embankment basement. They must have been instantly overwhelmed. It was a night of terror and tragedy between Lambeth and Vauxhall bridges. The flood slammed the door on a man who had returned to a basement room tor valuables, and he was drowned. River steamers grotesquely rode at the street level. Underground railways are dislocated by the floods, and power housed are paralysed. Two servants were drowned in the basement at Hammersmith. Remarkable heroism was shown by Miss Frank Isse. After escaping from a flooded 'flat at Putney, she returned. Breaking a window and swimming around the room she rescued several others. Nevertheless two were drowned, but their bodies have not been recovered.—A.P.A. and “Sun.” MANY HOUSES INUNDATED FIREMEN PUMPING OUT BASEMENTS (Rec. January 8, 5.5 p.ni.) London, January 7. Many . houses in Stamford Street, parallel to the Thames, leading to Waterloo Station, were inundated. Three hundred women and children took refuge in a cfiapel. A hundred aud fifty men ceased work at the Union Cold Storage when water reached the machinery. Colonel Day, telephoned that the furniture in his flat at Westminster was floating. A boy asleep in a house at Broadwall, Blackfriars, was washed from his bed, but managed to scramble to safety. Another victim of the floods was an elderly woman who was drowned in a basement house in Couston Street, close, to Vauxhall Bridge. Firemen were pumping out basements at 3.30 this morning, the tide turning helping to save the situation. Residents in Ponsonby Place were warned by a lighterman hammering on their doors. People rushed out in their nightclothes. It is believed that ten were drowned in the Westminster basements, including the porter of the Tate Gallery and others at Putney and Hammersmith. The floods reached the jewel chamber in the Tower, and the Blackwall tunnel under Lambeth Palace. Mounted police rescued terror-stricken women aud children in many low-lying streets.FLOODS UNPRECEDENTED PEOPLE RESCUED FROM WINDOWS (Rec. January 8, 5.5 p.m.) London, January 7. The Thames floods were unprecedented. Even Richmond and Twickenham were invaded and street traffic was suspended lower down the river. A convent at Islesworth was marooned across flooded fields. Water demolishel the walls of an ancient palace below. Richmond. A woman’s body lying in a coffin floated away. The principal incinerators were flooded, preventing the collection of garbage for several days. Kew Green and- the Royal Gardens, also Chiswick, on the opposite side of the river, were severely damaged. At Fulham the high tide water rose above the stage to the theatre. The Chelsea aud Pimlico districts were inundated, the river breaking the banks in the vicinity in two plades, frty yards long, Many living in these thicklv populated districts were driven out ot their homes. It was a night of terror all through the flooded areas In one case a bedridden woman of 80 years was caught in a |>asenient. A man dived in and found the bed floating against the ceiling. Rescue was impossible. Escapees clad in nightclothes crowded the streets, children being terror-stricken. Police reserves were called out and mounted men traversed the streets, knocking at doors and rousing inhabitants. They rescued many on horseback from windows. A man was trapped in a basement at Ponsonby Place. A hole was cut in the floor of the room above atid lie was lifted out unconscious. Swans swam on Horseferfy Road.—Sydney “Sun” Cable. FLOODS MAY BE REPEATED TIDES LIKELY TO INCREASE

(Rec. January 8, 5.5 p.m.) London, January 7. There was no recurrence of the London floods to-dav, but the Port, of London Autimto! * wernfug that

they may be repeated, as the tides are likely to increase till Tuesday. Breaches in the embankment wall have been temporarily repaired with sandbags. The corrected death-roll is now fourteen. Most of the fatalities were at Westminster, where poor .people in tenements near the Houses of Parliament were the worst sufferers. Heroic efforts to rescue those imprisoned were made last night by police and neighbours, who went to the doors arousing sleepers. Harding, an artisan, whose four daughters were drowned in their beds, had a terrible experience. The girls were sleeping in one room m a basement. Harding rushed down and heard the girls’ pitiful cries to open the door, but tfie water was so deep that all his powerful, prolonged, and desperate exertions were unavailing, and he had to give up the attempt and go upstairs to rescue his wife and other children

Priceless pictures housed in a basement at the Tate Gallery, mostly Turner sketches, were soaked, and it is feared that many are ruined. This is the most sudden and serious flood in London in living memory. The “Observer” describes it as the worst shock to London’s complacency since the war, revealing a parlously weak spot in the defences of the metropolis, which cannot be repaired by the mere extension and strengthening of the embankments. The Thames has developed a menace unknown for upwards of a century, because the national system of land drainage has fallen hopelessly in arrears.