UNUSUAL WEATHER

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 5, 7 January 1928, Page 13

UNUSUAL WEATHER

GALE IN ENGLAND THAMES VALLEY FLOODED SEVERAL CASUALTIES (United Press Association.—Copyright.) (Sydney Sun Cable.) (Received 7th January, 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, 6th January. Britain's experiences of unusual weather have now been increased by a daylong hurricane, the wind travelling at from 60 to 85 miles an hour. So fierce was the gale that it caused a suspension of cross-Channel air services, and turned the flooded districts of the Thames Valley into a storm-tossed sea, in which it was difficult to manoeuvre boats, which aro 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 besido the debris of a blown down wall at Kilbuni, and search revealed the mother dead. At Belfast eight persons wero 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 received a fractured leg, 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 has delayed the re-opening of the Southern Bailway line between Merstham and Coulsdon. It is hoped that normal traffic will be resumed on Monday.