FLOODS AT HOME.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14702, 1 June 1920, Page 2

FLOODS AT HOME.

ENGLISH TOW SWEPT AWAY. [Bt EtECtaiO TELEGRAFH —CoPTKIOHT.j (Per Press Association.) (Aus. and N.Z. Cable Asen.) Received May 31.. Louth is a pleasant Lincolnshire town lying 'at tne foothills on the edge of aflat., marshy plain. a cToridbnrst occurred on the bills, a few miles distant. Most of the towns- | o&ople'irere' driven indoors by the rain, ■ ana many Were at tea. There was no 1 CTfning bf .the disaster, as .the rainfall locaHywasnotexcesMve. . The- 'flood V waters burst in at the doors awttfindows of the houses, and many-' Vvictflfis were trapped on tne tititu£t]ißodrß. One woman escaped by cumbing a' chimney. Three children haying tea with their mother, and they' mounted and higher to avojd'therising water, until they were cbijiaeHed to cling to the curtain pole. Tfien' they either dropped from exhausfion <jr the pole collapsed. All the chii/sen were drowned. The chief police officer attended the telephone continuously for three hours, standing in four feet of water. Received May 31, at p.m. LONDON, May 31. The .flood waters at Louth swept away' bridges, houses and walls in a fetf nripute6. It is estimated that the death toll is fifty. , . _ li_ * Parties are now searching the debris. Only one survivor was found among the occupants of a terrace of twelve houses destroyed. , The fatalities include four firemen stffep't away with their engine.