SEVERE ENGLISH GALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21029, 13 November 1931, Page 9

SEVERE ENGLISH GALE.

SOUTH COAST SUFFERS.

WAVES INVADE THE SHORE. SHOPS BADLY DAMAGED. MANY FAMILIES HOMELESS. BUNGALOWS DEMOLISHED. By Telegraph--Press Association—Copyright. (Received November 12. 0.5 p.m.) British Wireless. RUGBY, Nov. IT. The gale in (he English Channel continued with unabated force to-day and the whole of (be south coast experienced storms of exceptional severity. The Armistice Day service, which had been arranged to tako place on the Parade at Hastings, Sussex, bad to be abandoned and a service was held in the White Rock pavilion. The wind reached a velocity of 70 miles an hour in some places. Heavy seas invaded the streets in several coast towns and premises were flooded at Portsmouth and Folkestone. The coast roads were black with debris. At places in the Isle of Wight, where concrete sea defences were broken down, masses of masonry were hurled 30yds. back from the. sea. Shop fronts wcro thrown back 60ft. and smashed. The worst of the storm struck the coast between Eastbourne and Folkestone, where the action of the Channel currents through several centuries had piled up many square miles of land between the old Cinque Ports of Rye and Winchelsea and the sea. To-day the seas broko through the foreshore of shingle, and waves 30ft. high dashed against the bungalows, demolishing many of them. Numerous families are homeless.

There was an exceptionally high fide in the River Thames to-day, but no damage was caused.