GALE AND FLOOD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22981, 8 March 1938, Page 16

GALE AND FLOOD

DAMAGE IN ENGLAND SEA SWEEPS INLAND PERILS ON NORFOLK COAST [from our own correspondent] LONDON. Feb. 19 The coincidence of abnormally high tides with one cd the worst gales of the winter wrought havoc on the east and south coasts of England during the past week-end. The greatest danger arose 011 the Norfolk coast, where the sea broke in. One villago had to be evacuated and huge stretches of land are under water, which will probably take six weeks to drain away. The breach extended three miles along the coast and the sea readied five miles inland. An area of 20 square miles was inundated by the worst floods experienced in the district for 50 years. The 150 inhabitants of the village of Horsey, which was cut off by the floods, were, with a few hardy exceptions, removed from their homes by boats and motor-cars. No approach road to the village was passable within about five miles. Terrifying Experiences Some of the lakes made by the sea's invasion of Norfolk merged with the Broads. A milkman, Mr. Roy Randall, was trapped by the sea on the main coast road at Horsey. When the water was within a foot of the top of his car his signals "were seen, but it was difficult to reach him because of obstruction to the boats. He was marooned for IS hours before two men forced a way through reeds, lifted their boat over banks and found him exhausted. A resident of Horsey said: "We made for the sandhills, knowing that they were our only hope. For two miles we went with the sea following like a great lake. We saw cattle and horses being drowned. It was a terrible experience." Hundreds of volunteers worked night and day repairing breaches in the walls with bags of clay in their attempt to hold back the water. Houses Inundated Great damage was done to coastal resorts in the south-east of England. In the Kentish town of Whitstable the sea battered in front doors and swept through the houses. Cellars along the front were not only flooded but had five to six feet of shingle driven into them. At Southwold, Suffolk, 105 beach bungalows were wrecked by the heavy gale and high tide, and, some were swept out to sea. Over 400 bathing huts were damaged or washed out to sea at Heme Bay, and when the (Essex) sea wall gave Way in three places about 70 houses were flooded. Several families living in bungalows had to be rescued. London had its anxieties, for the Thames reached its highest levfel since the 1928 disaster and there was a slight overflow. Throughout Saturday night hundreds of people at Millbank and Rotherhithe, who had been warned not to go to bed, watched the rising waters until danger had passed.