11 DEATHS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23161, 6 October 1938, Page 14

11 DEATHS

GALE IN BRITAIN SERIOUS DAMAGE TREE FALLS ON BBS 1000 PEOPLE HOMELESS By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received October 5, 8.5 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 6 A fierce gale which raged all yesterday seriously damaged property all over England. Three passengers were killed and 10 injured when an elm tree was blown down on top of a double-decker bus at Norwood, In addition, seven people were drowned and another was killed by a falling branch. A thousand people are homeless.

HAVOC ON COAST DUTCH STEAMER AGKOTTND TELEPHONE LINES DOWN CHANNEL SERVICES STOPPED (Roceived October 6, 5.5 p.m.) British Wireless RUGBY, Oct. 5 The toll of damage from the gale continued to mount during yesterday and serious floods were also reported from the north of England. The wind reached a velocity of 80 miles an hour at Blackpool, where nearly a mile of iUuminations and tableaux along the sea route were wrecked. The small Dutch steamer Regina went aground off the Sker Rocks on the south coast of Wales, with nine men and one woman aboard, but the seas were so high that after one man had been brought ashore the rescue attempts were abandoned until the gale abated. The English Channel services were completely disorganised. The steamer Princess Josephine Charlotte, coming from Ostend wijih 83 passengers, and the Shepperton ferry, with a cargo from Dunkirk, wer» unable to make Dover Harbour, and recrossed the Channel to anchor under the lee of the French coast off Dunkirk. 1 ' % v ' '/•

Small vessels were driven ashore, and lifeboats effected several rescues. Trawlers could hot enter the Grimsby dock. 1

Nearly 2000 telephone lines in the London afßa ire dowft, and from the point of view of damage postal officials describe the storm as one of the worst for many years, y V. The gale and 1 heavy seas prevented the Mercury, the upper component of the Mayo composite aircraft, from starting yesterday on her .projected non-stop flight to Capetown, and with the Maia, the lower component, she remained at Dundee pending favourable weather. "