ROUGH WEATHER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 28, 2 January 1926, Page 7

ROUGH WEATHER.

YEAR’S WORST GALE.

FLOODS IN BRITAIN.

LONDON, Dec. 30. Meadows, fields and valleys during the past few days have been transformed into sheets of water. Ten million tons of rain fell in London in an hour, accompanied by a wild gale, which loosened chimneys and caused havoc to wireless aerials. Weather forecasts predict a continuance l of blizzards, which aro producing mountainous seas in tho Atlantic, from where there have been numerous S.O.S. calls and thrilling tales of plucky lifeboat aud coastguard rescues. Tho year 1925 was literally blown out 'in the year’s worst gale. Vast areas in Britain and the Continent are flooded, and tho position is so serious in Belgium, Holland and Germany that the Governments are obliged to undertake rescue and relief measures.

A hurricane with a wind velocity of 85 miles an hour and an intense thunderstorm in London and elsewhere did much minor damage. Telegraphs and telephones aro interrupted. At tho East End Poor Law Institution one ’man was killed and seven were injured by tho fall of a chimney upon a ward occupied by 40 inmates, some of whom were partly buried in the debris. Tho Thames river continues to rise.—A. and N.Z. cable.

FLOODS IN GERMANY THOUSANDS HOMELESS. BERLIN, Dec. 31. The Danube, Rhine and Elbe valleys are inundated and towns and villages isolated by floods. Only the hill on which the cathedral stands is not submerged. Thousands of people are homeless. The floods are extending. The Rhine is 26ft above normal. Large areas of Mulheim are submerged. British troops in Cologne were compelled to use rafts to reach the canteens. A motor car at Heidelberg suddenly entered a flooded street. The occupants, a doctor and his wife, were drowned. •—A. and N.Z. cable. GREAT DAMAGE IN HUNGARY. BUDAPEST Dec. 31. Aeroplanes throughout the day fruitlessly bombed the ico pack 160 feet high, blocking the river Meiss. Five army engineers were drowned in endeavouring to rescue families who have been taking refuge on the roofs of houses for the past four days. There have been many deaths and great damago from floods throughout Hungary. Thrity-six miners wero entrapped in the Marsuivor mine and drowned. Hundreds are homeless in Eastern Hungary. The river Meiss is swollen. Soldiers using field guns unsuccessfully attempted to break up the masses of ice which the floods have brought from tho mountains. Troops diminished the loss of life by bursting a dam. —Sydney Sun cable. BELGIAN HOMES- FLOODED. BRUSSELS, Jan. 1. Tho bursting of the Meuse dykes, owing to the floods, swamped the Belgian coalfields' and inundated 25,000 houses. Hundreds of cattle wero ' drowned. —Sydney Sun cable. SEINE RISING. PARIS, Dec. 30. Tho Seine river continues to rise. Parts of the quays ill Paris are submerged, and cellars in tho suburbs are flooded. Tho smaller wireless aerial at the Eiffel tower was carried away.— Reuter and A. and N.Z. cable.