BUILDINGS FLOODED

Hawera Star, Volume L, 18 December 1930, Page 5

BUILDINGS FLOODED

big water-main bursts. TUBE STATION DAMAGED. (British Official Wireles*.) RUGBY, Dee. lf>. A severe dislocation of traffic both in the streets and on the underground railways and serious damage to business property, besides the interruption of telephonic and electric light services in the immediate district, were caused bv the bursting of a 24-inch water main at the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road this morning, just as city workers were arriving from the suburbs. The flood forced up the wooden paving blocks and, spreading in all directions, poured into basements of buildings and down elevators to the tube station platforms, where the water was soon some feet deep. The extent of W' 'the damage cannot yet be estimated, but it is feared that the foundations of the roadway and the super-struc-ture of the underground station are affected. Shops in the wffiole area anticipate heavy losses in the Christmas trade.

A gas main explosion two years ago, when many streets were closed for months, took place a few hundred yards from, the scene of to-day’s accident. It is expected, that the under ground services will lie normal to-mor-row.