UNPRECEDENTED SEVERITY

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

UNPRECEDENTED SEVERITY

DAWN OF SIXTH DAY VILLAGES FLOODED (Rec. December 10, 10.5 p.m.) London, December 9. The gale was still raging at the dawn of the sixth day with unprecedented severity. Whole tracts of the countryside are flooded, and the Thames is becoming a series of great lakes, in some places two' miles wide. Villages which fringe the Somerset moorlands have been flooded, and four hundred homeless people have taken refuge in neighbouring places. A hundred thousand tons of shipping has been lost, stranded or rendered in distress. The insurance losses are heavy, but overspread. TRAWLER RESCUES SURVIVORS (Rec. December 10, 7 p.m.) Paris, December 9. A trawler picked up the six survivors of the Italian steamer Chieri, which sank off Usbant. Forty of the crew were drowned. A newspaper aeroplane reached Le Bourget, despite the storm in the Channel, with which the pilot had a four hours’ battle. MOTHS CROSS CHANNEL DETERMINED TO SEE FIGHT London, December 9. When Saturday’s gale suspended the boat and aeroplane Channel services, Messrs. A. Butler, chairman of the De Havilland Company, and Nigel Norman, director of the Airport, were determined to occupy ringside seats at the Camera fight in Paris, which they had booked for themselves and their wives. They set forth in their own Gipsy Moth ’planes in the midst of the rainladen tempest and reached Paris with their wives by dinner time. Terrific bumps shook the ’planes, and would have thrown the occupants from their seats had they not been strapped in. They were the only aerial Channelcrossers on Saturday. ROYAL TRAIN LATE (British Official Wireless,) (Rec. December 10, 5.5 p.m.) Rugby, December 9. For the first time on record the Royal train, in which the King and Queen to-day travelled from Sandringham to London, was late. It reached London some nineteen minutes behind the scheduled time owing to the winds encountered on the journey. HURRICANE- IN PACIFIC ANXIETY IN FIJI Suva, December 10. A storm in the north-west is believed to be recurving to strike Fiji. The barometer is at 29.50, and is falling. A hurricane signal has been hoisted. The yacht Pioneer is holding to a sea anchor a hundred miles south of Rotuma, and reports a heavy gale. The storm covers a wide area.