SCOURGED BY FLOODS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19217, 5 January 1926, Page 9

SCOURGED BY FLOODS.

MANY SWOLLEN BIVEBS. HOUSEHOLDERS MAROONED DISASTERS ON CONTINENT. STARVATION AND COLD. 1000 PEOPLE DROWNED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received U. 55 p.m.) Sun. LONDON, Jan. 3. Tho floods are rising still throughout Britain, especially in the valleys of tho Rivers Thames, Severn, Wye and Avon. Many landslides and railway subsidences have occurred. Hundreds of families have been compelled to evacuate their homes. Thousands of people whe had been livi'jg in bungalows in the Thames valley have I been marooned as a result of fifteen days' | continuous rain. j Tho Rugby wireless station came to tho rescue of darkened Warwick and Leaming- | ton, whoso power stations wore flooded, I and it is now supplying all the current j and light required by both cities. I The Post Office authorities, when erect- ' ing the Rugbv station, doubly guarded against the failure of its own power resources by making a connection with tho cables of tho Warwick and Leamington power stations. It was never anticipated that tho purpose for which the con- | nection was made would be reversed. Reports from the Continent show that | at Caen, in the north of France, 60,000 I inhabitants have been isolated for three days. Men have waded breast-high in the flood waters carrying milk to babies and invalids. In Belgium there are 250,000 people out of work. Rations of bully beef and biscuits are being served out. Dutch marines carried the Queen of Holland shoulder high when she was visiting the flooded villages. Thousands of people m Hungary are still clinging to the roofs of their submerged j houses and dying of starvation and oxi posure. In Rumania about a thousand people have been drowned owing to tho suddenness of the floods which have swept away factories and bridges.