FIERCE CHANNEL GALE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 29 December 1923, Page 5

FIERCE CHANNEL GALE.

WORST STORM FOR TWENTYFIVE YEAES.

TROOPS INJURED BY SEAS.

Many towns on the south and southeast coast of England and much shipping suffered on October 12 from the full force of what is sakl to be the i fiercest Channel storm of the last quarter of a century. From Portsmouth to Dover south-westerly gales swept the coast. Tremendous seas crashed.over the sea walls and flooded the low-lying parts of many of the towns. So high were the waves at Dover that, breaking over the Admiralty Pier they smashed In the side of a troop train truck and severely injured three men. The troops—a party of the Ist King's Dragoon Guards—had been brought from Edinburgh to cross to Germany. The three soldiers, who were badly crushed and had bones broken, were taken to hospital. Two porters were also hurt. The portion of the train containing the women and children of the regiment had the windows smashed in by heavy seas. The Princess Clementine, a troopship with the 14/30 Regiment of Hussars f. ro™ Cologne and fifty women and children did not disembark at Dover until 730 the previous night, having I been 11 hours on the Channel crossing Abnormal high tides, combined with a gale of wind which reached a maximum of nearly sixty miles an hour, produced floodings at Sandgate and Seabrooke, between Folkestone and Hythe Several houses on the sea front had to be hastily evacuated, and at one point on the main coast road between Folkestone and Hythe there was flooding to a depth of nearly five feet. The tremendous force of the waves may be judged by the fact that a breach was created in the outer wall of Sandgate Castle, which at the base is between thirty and forty feet in thickness, and great fragments of the wall were hurled in all directions. The solid sea wall, 6ft in thickness, was broken through, and the last house in a little terrace of houses was battered in by the waves. Tons of water poured through a 30ft breach, and scooped a trench 80ft by 40ft m. the garden by the side of a large house.

The foundations of the house were undermined, and the occupants fled. Scores of large steamers and sailing vessels were held up off Deal, ridin* out the gale with two anchorß down ** At Hastings the sea washed over the parade, penetrating parts of the town and leaving many tons of shingle behind.

Twelve miles from Paris Plage, says a Reuter Boulogne wire, fishermen came upon an abandoned British barque. Having lost four of her crew during the storm in the Atlantic, the British steamer Domira arrived in Aberdeen shewing signs of her terrible experience. r

Owing to injuries sustained by so many of the crew help was necessary before the ship could be brought into Aberdeen harbour.

# Broad street, Portsmouth, was flooded in the afternoon, the water reaching up to the window sills of houses. Road traffic was heW up, and a naval signal was made that boat traffic out of the harbour was dangerous. A telegraph boy delivered his message in a boat and workmen went to a restaurant in a skiff.

The roughest sea for 30 years washed .Eastbourne parades, and left behind a two-mile trail of damage and wreckage.

Bournemouth was also swept by a heavy gale of wind and rain,"and great seas dashed over the cliffs and promenade. Tents left standing on the beach were wrecked.

While a coffin was being lowered into a grave at Brighton cemetery one of the mourning caches was blown over. The driver was pinned underneath and kicked by the horse. Mourners and others went to his assistance, and he was taken to hospital. With the exception of a Dutch monoplane flying on the Daimler airway from Rotterdam to London, all air services were suspended owing to wind and rain.

About five o 'clock people at Abercstivyth saw a waterspout travelling at great speed over the sea in the direction of the town. A long, funnel-like cloud hung down from a black mass overhead on to the sea, which was greatly agitated. The wind rose and blew in strong gusts while the cloud was in sight.