SWEPT BY GALE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 305, 11 December 1929, Page 5

SWEPT BY GALE

STORM IN ENGLAND CONTINUES ALL RIVERS IN FLOOD. HEAVY SHIPPING LOSSES. (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, December 9. For the fifth day in succession Southern England was again swept by gales, and gusts of between 70 and 80 miles hourly were recorded inland, while in the western approaches to the English Channel winds of hurricane force were still blowing this afternoon. Landslips and fallen trees have interrupted road and rail traffic in some areas. Chief anxiety, however, is aroused owing to the swollen condition of the rivers, which in all parts of England are in a state of flood. In some counties traffic has been disorganised in consequence, and occupants of houses in low-lying areas have had to vacate them.

The position in the Thames Valley was referred to to-day by Lord Desborough, chairman of the Thames Conservatory Board. The total rainfall in the valley in the last ten weeks alone equals the average fall for the six winter months. Some 325 men are on special duty keeping weirs free from obstructions. A further rise in the next two or three days is inevitable. even if the rain ceases. The prolonged drought of the summer enabled the rivers to absorb heavy rainfalls without flooding in November, but the December rains have brought floods.

ROYAL TRAIN BEHIND TIME. For the first time on record a Royal train, in which the King and Queen to-day travelled from Sandringham to London, was late. It reached London some 19 minutes behind scheduled time owing to winds encountered on the journey.

Further reports of damage to shipping have been received at Lloyds. The British steamer Manchester Regiment wirelessed that it had taken on board 45 of the crew of the Glasgow steamer Volumnia. which was abandoned at noon to-day several hundred miles off the west coast of Ireland. One lifeboat was lost in the operations.

Several vessels disabled owing to damage to steering gear summoned assistance from tugs during the day. Vessels in distress in the English Channel have also received assistance from great ocean liners. The British steamer Britannic was towed by a trawler, which stood by For som” hours before a cable could be passed owing to the gale. Several fatal accidents due to the wind occurred on land, and three neople suffered serious injury through the collapse of a chnrch in Glasgow during a severe thunderstorm.

STILL RAGING ON SIXTH DAY UNPRECEDENTED SEVERITY. Patted Pres- Association—By Cable Copyright > London, December 10. The gale was still raging at dawn of the sixth day with unprecedented severity. Whole tracts of country-

side are flooded and the Thames is becoming a series of great lakes, in some places two miles wide. Villages which fringe the Somerset moorlands have been flooded and 400 homeless have taken refuge in neighbouring places. A hundred thousand tons of shipping have been lost, stranded, or rendered in distress. Insurance losses are heavy. STIRRING STOKirc OF RESCUES AT SEA. lUnlted Pres* Association— By CableCony right.i Paris, December 9. A stirring story of a double rescue was told by the officers of the French salvage lug Iroise, which put to sea ou December 5 in search of the steamer Helen, which was reported to be in distress south of Ushant. The Helen’s hold was found to be full of water and her engines out of commission. The Iroise passed a cable aboard, but it broke in the darkness while making for Brest. The Helen drifted rapidly towards the Armen rocks and began to sink. The Iroise picked up the crew with the exception of one officer. The Iroise had scarcely finished the rescue when she received an S.O.S. from the Danish freighter Galdani, which she succeeded in bringing safely to port.

The Iroise has now set out again in reply to .signals from the .British steamers Alba and Tynebtidge and the Italian vessel Senatore Dali. A trawler picked up six survivors of the Italian steamer Chieri, which sank off Ushant. Forty of the crew were drowned. The newspaper aeroplanes reached Le Bourget, despite the Channel storm, with which the pilot had a four hours’ battle.