CANTERBURY STORM

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 January 1929, Page 5

CANTERBURY STORM

DAMAGE BY SOUTHERLY.

(Per Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, January 25

A storm of unprecedented severity for midsummer swept Canterbury, beginning on Wednesday night, and reaching its maximum of violence this morning. On Wednesday night rain fell in floods, with a strong wind. On Thursday, the rain continued, and this morning, while the rain abated the, wind increased, causing considerable damage along the sea front on beaches near Christchurch. High tides, swollen streams, and very heavy seas, raised by the gale, caused inroads of the sea in several places. At Bexley, in the New Brighton district, water flooded the low-lying lands, destroying field crops and even entering the houses. The residents had to be removed this morning in milk carts and drays from houses in the flooded area. Fowls were drowned in large numbers. One owner lost three hundred. Heathcote is also flooded. One field of mangels was completely washed out at Kairaki. Residents in Sumner cottages,were flooded out, and campers, of whom there were many, made their escape early this morning, some of them in pyjamas.

A hundred sheep left in Addington yards, after the sale on Wednesday, perished in the heavy rain the same night. They were all dead the following morning.

All over the province wheat crops must have suffered serious damage, but the extent of it is not yet ascertainable. Also it is considered certain that there will be mortality among newly-shorn sheep. At Moncks Bay, near Sumner, ten small yachts were sunk at their moorings. Telegraph and telephone lines in the suburbs have beeu broken in many places by falling branches. Rain has ceased now, and the wind is moderating.

FOG IN BRITAIN,

(British Official Wireless).

RUGBY, January 23. , For the first time for two years there was no air service between London and the Continent yesterday owing to fog which enveloped a large part of England and the English Channel. Conditions have been so adverse to Channel shipping during the past few days that no ships have been able to reach the Channel Islands since Sunday. The fog, though considerably less dense, persists to-day in many parts of the country owing to severe frosts. No fewer than 20 motor-cars were involved in a crash at the foot of a hill near Wellingborough yesterday. A slight railway accident, attributable to fog, occurred near Manchester.