MORE BLIZZARDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1947, Page 7

MORE BLIZZARDS

Snow And Ice Disrupt Life In Britain MANY FACTORIES CLOSE (Recd. 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, February 5. More villages in North-east England have been isolated as the result of a further four to six inches of snow last night. The shortage of food at farm houses and outlying hamlets is growing more acute, and it is suggested that if the position becomes worse, supplies may have to be dropped by parachute. North Norfolk caught the full force of the blizzard. Cromer, until noon to-day, was cut off by 10ft. snowdrifts. A 35-minute bus journey took nearly three hours. Yorkshire and Derbyshire are having the worst weather for many years. All the main roads are blocked and many roads are impassable in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and on the Welsh border.

Most of Devon and Cornwall are ice bound. The Great North Road between Stamford and Grantham, where a huge traffic jam occurred yesterday, is still blocked by deep snowdrifts. The Automobile Association, issuing a warning, said the roads had never been so bad. At some places in Lincolnshire only the tops of telegraph poles can be seen above the drifts. Thousands Idled. The snowdrifts, disorganising the railways, held up local trains. Fifty-eight thousand workers in Birmingham have stopped work or are on short time. Twenty-eight cotton mills at Blackburn, Lancashire, have closed because of the fuel shortage. Police, gamekeepers and volunteer search parties found no trace of Richard Grisham and his wife, who, on a holiday, walked out into the blizzard at Goathland, north Yorkshire, on February 3, and have not been seen since. Skiers struggled to outlying farmhouses in the. hope that the couple were sheltering. New drifts 10 to 20 feet deep have now immobilised the searchers. Snow fell in London last night. R.A.F. men at a wireless station six

miles south-west of Louth, who have been cut off for more than two days, are waiting for aircraft to drop food by parachute. Severe Weather in Europe. The Paris weather bureau gave warning of a new “cold offensive” threatening the city after a two-day thaw. Heavy snowfalls are predicted in the Ardennes and Vosges. The British United Press Rome correspondent reports that gales which swept Italy forced the liner Otranto, carrying war prisoners from Australia, to put to sea and stand off Naples harbour .to await calmer weather. Other ships in the harbour were torn from their moorings. Heavy damage was caused by floods and gales. Two men were drowned in the River Arno, near Florence. The River Tiber at Rome is 30 feet above normal. Snow blocked many roads throughout Italy. Snow and high winds, which blew down electric power cables, stopped the rail and tramway systems in many areas. The Associated Press Nuremberg correspondent says that the Bavarian Coal Ministry reported that looters are stealing such huge quantities of coal from Bavaria-bound trains that they are arriving almost empty.