GALES SWEEP ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 66, 11 December 1929, Page 11

GALES SWEEP ENGLAND

FIFTH DAY OF STORM FURTHER DAMAGE TO SHIPPING HEROIC RESCUES FATALITIES ON LAND (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. December 10, 5.5 p.m.) Rugby, December 9. For the fifth day in succession Southern England to-day was again swept by gales, and gusts of between 70 and 80 miles an hour were recorded inland, while in the Western approaches to the English Channel, winds of hurricane force were still blowing this afternoon. Further reports of damage to shipping were received at Lloyd’s. The British steamer Manchester Regiment wirelessed that.it had taken on board 45 of the Glasgohv steamer Volumsia, abandoned at noon t to-day, several hundred miles off the West Coast of Ireland. One lifeboat was lost in the operations. Several vessels disabled owing to damage to steering-gear summoned asistance from tugs during the day. Vessels in distress in the English Channel have also received assistance from gfeat ocean liners. The British steamer Britannic was towed by a trawler, which had stood by for some hours before a cable could be passed owing to the gale. Cross-Channel Service Resumed. The cross-Channel services were resumed this morning, despite the high wind and seas. Official forecasts indicate a likelihood of further gales in the South, with generally wet weather. Over thirty large steamers, most of them with two anchors down, have been sheltering off Deal. -The lifeboats round the coast have been constantly engaged, and the crews have displayed the utmost heroism in their struggles with mountainous seas. Some of the older members of the crews, although exhausted by their ordeals, have refused to consider a suggestion that volunteers, plenty of whom were available. should take their places in the lifeboats. They have been responsible for saving numerous lives during the week-end. The British Royal Mail liner Arlanza, bound for Brazil, rescued the crew of the 5000-ton Italian steamer Casmona in the Bay of Biscay, and the German steamship Hansa took off the Casmona’s captain. The Arlanza lost a boat during the rescue operations, but no casualties occurred. The Casmona was abandoned in a sinking condition. The White Star liner Homeric, which arrived at Southampton from New York yesterday twenty hours late, reported experiencing one of the roughest crossings she had had. Windows were broken on the promenade deck 60 feet above the waterline by terrific waves. Accidents Ashore. Several fatal accidents due to the wind occurred on land and three people suffered serious injury through the collapse of a church in Glasgow during a severe thunderstorm. Landslips and fallen trees interrupted road and rail traffic in some areas. The chief anxiety, however, is aroused owiii" to the swollen condition of rivers, which in all parts of England are in a state of flood. In some counties traffic has been disorganised In consequence and the occupants of houses in low-lying areas have had to vacate them. The position in the Thames Valley was referred to to-day by Lord Desborough, chairman of the Thames Conservatory Board, of which he is chairman. The total rainfall in the valley in the last ten weeks alone equals the average fall for six winter months. There are 325 men on special duty keeping weirs free from obstructions. A further rise in the rivers in the next two or three days is inevitable even 1. the rain ceases. The prolonged drought of summer enabled the rivers to absorb the heavy rainfalls without flooding in November, but the December rains have brought floods.