ARCTIC CONDITIONS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 30 December 1927, Page 5

ARCTIC CONDITIONS

PREVAIL IN BRITAIN.

TRAFFIC STILL HELD UP. TOWNS SHORT OF SUPPLIES, by cable-press association -copyright. LONDON. Doc. 28. General disorganisation of trunk telephones, telegraphic delays and the isolation of the various .snow-bound districts have hitherto prevented the realisation of the full toll of the blizzard. It is now certain that the experience of the South of England is unprecedented in living memory. Twelve important outlets from Loudon are still blocked iby frozen drifts 'between 5 feet and 20 feet high, or by floods. Eight are open, but they necessitate careful crawling owing to the ice-surfaced hills. Motorists endeavouring to neaoh London relate trying road after road, travelling at a walking pace, frequently shovelling away the smaller drifts, eventually being driven back by colossal drifts, packed level with the roadsides, and finally giving up, proceeding to London bytrain. All the roads are strewn with abandoned cars and motor cycles, the occupants walking miles seeking refuge. Some of the drifts are miles long, and a hard frost has now set .in, rendering itiheir removal an almost impossible task. Complete restoration of road communication is unlikely until the thaw sets in.

On the other hand continued frost is the chief hope of preventing disastrous floods. In the Thames Valley the tributaries are rising and Rlunnymede is submerged. If the snow melts before the flood water ihasi been dispersed, thousands more tons of water will be released Nevertheless many districts are praying for a, thiaw to remove the enormous drifts-, which are completely cutting them off from the world, resulting in a shortening of food supplies, despite the use of rafts, punts, snow ploughs and sledges.

MOTOR-BUSES OFTEN MAROONED Tales of motor ’buses being marooned in various districts are frequent. The passengers are often forced to spend the night in the ’buses or to walk to the nearest town, perhaps only to find rail communication blocked,* resulting sometimes in two days imprisonment. The railways generally- report that conditions are returning to. normal, although - there are many- delays owing to frozen points and signals. There are snowdrifts, on some of the, lines, notably in Hampshire. The neighbourhood of Basingstoke caught the full force of the blizzard, which completely blocked the line. The train snowed up on Christmas night at Alton has not yet been released. The steamer Engadine, which crossed the Channel from Boulogne to-day, was continually swept by mountainous seas andi -was badly .battered. The Ddeppe-Ne wh ave n, and SouthamptonHavre service continue.

Flood waters completely surround Canieilbnry, where 500 houses are tioded and 2000 people are living in their bedrooms, 'being supplied, .with food from boats. The villages in the vicinity are isolated, the homeless people being accommodated at the Deanery -and the barracks. The mayor is raising a relief fund. Road traffic in Cornwall and Devon, where snow is very rare, is completely disorganised, and steamers, are supplying food coastwise. London boroughs -are employing thousands of “unemployed” to clear the sti-eets. ' The daily cost of this is £SOOO.

9 DEGREES OF FROST RECORDED Great Britain is still in the giip of Aratic conditions. Nine degrees of frost is now prevailing, and this increases the difficulty of clearing away snowdrifts. Numerous hamlets, especially in the Men dips and other lull districts, have been cut off since Christmas Day, receiving no letters, no papers, and very little food, while the telephone lines are so disorganised as to make communication practically impossible. Doctors on Salisbury Plain are unable to reach the sick and children are being born without medical help. Drifts on the plain are often twenty feet deep and doctors say they attempted to force their motors through the drifts but failed.

Army tanks assisted in. forcing passages through the snow-blocked roads at Tidiworth and else where on Salisbury Plain. Two infantry battalions are assisting to clear the Andover Rbad. Three dragon tanks, by crushing the drifts, enabled an omnibus service to reach the camp. Tanks also brought) maits, milk and provisions, ■which were miming low at the camps. One tank rescued a number of women passengers who were stranded- qn the railway line near Bulford. Three.hundred families' are now housed m public halls in Canterbury and others in local barracks.

For 'dh© third day a tierce north-east gate ihas swept the Channel with terrific §eas running. These flooded the ha-tclhes and burst the .bulkhead of the Jadies’ saloon on a cro-ss-C'hannel packet, causing consternation among the women and children as the water poured into the crowded saloon, disembarkation was an exceedingly difficult task, some women being so ill they had to be carried asihore. WOLVES IX BUDAPEST. Deceived 9.45 a.m. to-day. BUDAPEST, Dec. 28. The-severity of the winter has driven packs of wolves to Hungarian villages- • Som- have evien penetrated the capital, one being shot in the heart of the city.

GAMEKEEPER FROZEN TO LAMPPOST. Received 9.45 a.m. to-day. GENEVA. Dee. 28. A gamekeeper named Kinder left an inn at Basle in the early hours and clung to a lamppost, to which he became frozen, fig was released with difficulty at daylight and died in ■agony.

HEAVY GALE IN GHANNET

STEAMER BADLY DAMAGED.

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Dec. 28

Fire brigades from Bishop’s Stortford, trying to reach a burning mansion, known as Standon Lordship, famous as the residence of the Duke of Wellington after his victory at Waterloo, were unable to got through the snow block. Another fire brigade from Ware succeeded in reaching the mansion after digging tlreir way for over a mile through snowdrifts several feet high. The mansion was badly damaged.

In the English Channel a great gale is still raging. There have again been no steamer services to-day between Dover and Calais, but the Southern Railway decided it would be safe to permit two steamers to resume the Folkeston e-Boulogne service. The steamer Engadine, however, after landing 650 passengers at Folkestone, was found to be unlit to return to Boulogne, and will be out of commission for a week.

The Southern Railways announce that their steamer Maid of Kent was also damaged in trying to leave Dover yesterday. It is intimated that for some days normal cross-Channel services will be impossible. The services between Newhaven and Dieppe, and Southampton and Lc Havre have, however, continued.

All the aeroplane services from Croydon to the Continent are still suspended. One aeroplane arrived to-day at T.ympne from Os tend, but there have been no departures from Lyrnpno. Telegraph and telephone lines have been largely restored, but 183 trunk lines are still down and 3(500 lines of private subscribers in the London area are still out of order. It is now possible to telephone to Paris again, after two da vs’ break.