GALE IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 48, 20 November 1928, Page 11

GALE IN ENGLAND

MUCH HAVOC WROUGHT SEVERAL VESSELS IN DISTRESS LIFEBOATS SAVE MANY LIVES The gale In England wrought much havoc, the damage to property being etsimated at many thousands of pounds. Several shipping casualties are reported, and lifeboats saved many lives. (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, November 18. Much havoc was wrought by the gale ivhlch swept over England on Friday, [t attained a velocity of 80 miles an hour in Southern England and Wales. A.t least 20 people were killed, and scores suffered injury. , The condition of twelve of the injured is reported to be serious. The loss to property totals many thousands of pounds. The fatal accidents were all isolated cases caused by falling trees and masonry. Three huge cranes on the quayside at Southampton were blown over, one weighing fifteen tons, falling partly on a refreshment house, but all the diners, except two, who suffered minor injuries, escaped. Two other cranes were put out of action. Over 800 telephone lines were blown down, and seventy towns were cut off teiephonically from London. Roads and railways were temporarily blocked by fallen trees in many parts of the country. Destruction of House Property. Wireless broadcasting was seriously Interrupted, and seventeen stations were cut oft from headquarters. Fifty houses in the course of erection at Newport were destroyed, and in many parts of Southern England and Wales houses are reported to have had roofing tiles torn off. In London windows were broken in residential and shopping areas. Slates dislodged from the roof of the Law Courts necessitated the temporary closing to pedestrians of one side of Fleet Street. The wind broke off the hilt of the sword of the statue of Richard Coeur de Lion, outside the House of Lords. Lifeboats went out to the aid of a number of vessels in distress at sea, and many lives were saved. The crew of fifteen of the steamer Kentish Coast, which dragged her anchors and went aground, were rescued by means of a breeches buoy by the Plymouth motor lifeboat. The Ramsgate motor lifeboat rescued the crei of six of a schooner when the vessel was sinking off North Foreland. Lifeboats were also out from Caister, Gorleston and Torbay, and stood by distressed vessels. Officials of the Meteorological Department of the Air Ministry have records of gusts of ninety miles an hour at Cardintrfon and of eighty-one miles at Crowden. Unofficial reports state that in some places on the English Channel gusts exceeding one hundred miles an hour were experienced. It is many years since a wind of full hurricane force has been recorded over wide areas in England. Steamer Services Suffer. Cross-Channel passenger services suffered heavily, and the Folkestone to Boulogne steamer took eleven hours for the crossing, only making harbour early yesterday, after seven unsuccessful attempts. Passengers on the Ostend to Dover steamer spent the night at sea, the vessel anchoring off Dunkirk until yesterday morning, when the full force of the gale had spent itself. Many shipping casualties are reported, including the steamer Eltham, which was found near Redruth, broken in two. The crew so far are unaccounted for. Four East Coast lifeboats were out almost all day yesterday, but, apart from a few pieces of wreckage found, there has been nothing to account for flares reported from Scroby Sands. Although 344 main trunk telephone lines are out of action owing to the storm, alternative routes have been established with all provincial iowns.