FREAK WEATHER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 December 1927, Page 8

FREAK WEATHER

ICE-COVERED STREETS. MANY ACCIDENTS IN LONDON. TR AFFIC IN CHAOS, BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION - -COP I BIGHT. LONDON, Dec. 21. It. is estimated that 200 injured persons were treated in. the hospitals iol--1 owing the most 'remarkable weather freak in London within memory. Snow began to fail at midnight in the frozen city when a warm air current wafted from the west, making a difference of 12 degrees between the upper and the lower temperatures, and turning the snow into rain. The ground, however, was so. frozen that the rain was immediately turned into ice! Thus, by morning, London was converted into a gigantic skating rink with a quarter of an inch of glazed frost on the ground. Walking was impossible and people were falling everywhere like ninepins or were to be seen clinging to railings unable to move. Many tide newspapers or rags around their boots to prevent slipping and thousands did not venture from their homes.

Traffic was in an indescribable chaos, motor vehicles sliding dangerously, sometimes turning completely round; horses were quite unable to proceed; and trains were thrown) inter entire confusion, the wheels not gripping the frozen rails. Thousands of workers who were stranded streamed out seeking 'buses, which were standing helplessly in the streets, however. Scores of vehicles which did brave the impossible conditions were overturnod and a thousand ’buses were unable to leave their garages. The hospitals were converted lato scenes resembling casualty clearing stations in France during the war, all previous records for ambulance calls being broken. There were many serious oases of fractured limbs aud even several deaths. Later in the morning rain fell, rendering the roads temporarily more treacherous, but a thaw set in in the afternoon. Similar scenes were witnessed in Paris,' where 400 persons were sent to hospital, some with serious fractures and four or five fatally injured. Midnight revellers at Montmartre found the taxis unable to move. Hundreds of vehicles were backed against the kerbs to prevent their sliding downhill.

The morning milk and newspapers were not delivered owing to the impossibility of walking or driving. One motor car skidded the full width of the road on to the footpath, killed one woman ana Injured four other persons. Hundreds of vehicular crashes were reported throughout the city.