BLIZZARD IN ENGLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20292, 28 December 1927, Page 9

BLIZZARD IN ENGLAND

THE COUNTRY UNDER SNOW. HIGH SEAS IN THE CHANNEL. (Prus Association—By Telegraph—Copyright-) LONDON, December 26. A heavy fall of snow and sleet covered England during th© night. A north-east gale drove the snowstorm across almost the entire country. Five or sis inches of snow in the London area disrupted the holiday traffic. The weather caused the postponement of the races at Wolverhampton and Kempton Park. High seas are reported on the Atlantic and the English Channel- Transatlantic liners were delayed, and scores of smaller vessels hurried for shelter in harbours *nd breakwaters. It is the severest blizzard for many The Air Ministry reported a gale of 54 miles an hour at Holyhead, and 50 at the Scilly Islands. Hundreds of roads are impassable owing to drifts, some banks being as high as 16ft feet. Railway traffic is suspended on some sections while the Great Western has snow ploughs working.—A. and N.Z. Cable. SCORES OF BUSES STRANDED. WARATAHS’ MATCH ABANDONED. LONDON, December 26. Britain is heavily snowbound, interfering with the rail and street traffic, football, and racing. Scores of London buses are stranded in the snowdrifts. Toboganning and snowballing are the chief sports The Waratahs’ match against London was abandoned A. and N.Z. and Sydney Sun Cable. RAILWAY SERVICES DISLOCATED. SHIPPING BADLY BATTERED. SERIOUS FLOODS FEARED. LONDON, December 26. (Received Dec. 27, at 8.15 p.m.) On Christmas Night London and the whole of England was mantled with snow, an Arctic blizzard sweeping the entire country with a severity unexampled since 1906. It raged all night as well as the freater part of to-day, the temperature eing at freezing point. This is the first time that snow has fallen on Christmas Day in London for 21 years. Everything was covered to a depth of several inches, and trees were weighted down, making many pavements impassable. The absence of heavy traffic allowed the snow to accumulate in the streets, converting the whole of London into a gigantic Christmas card. To-day horse-drawn snow ploughs are working, together with an army ox labourers, but they are unable to cope with the downfall. In the suburbs the unexpected visitation of the old-fashioned Christmas brought widespread havoc. Early omnibuses and trams crawled along sedately, while trains were disorganised, and it was hours before they were able to run anything like proper services. Sports were widely abandoned and motoring was called off. Many villages were isolated, and travellers were caught on the roads and stranded. At Guildford, near London, two double-decker buses were completely buried in snowdrifts, and the passengers had to walk a mile to their destinations or to pick up other means of transport. Several branch line railways were impassably snowed up all day, and railwaymen describe it as being unprecedented, the drifts between Salisbury and Basingstoke being 12ft deep in places. Snow ploughs ar 0 at present at work clearing the lines. A few hours after Big Ben was heard in Australia it was stopped owing to the weight of th e snow accumulating on the hands proving too great for the veteran to manage. This is the first time such a thing has happened in the clock’s history. Every district reports severe falls, and blizzards of varying intensity are causing damage to property and disorganisation in tne routine of life. In Derbyshire the blizzard snowed up every road in th e region of Matlock, and men are digging a way to isolated villages. Scores of sheep are buried in snowdrifts in the Welsh mountains. Telephonic communications are widely interrupted, and the overhead wires are damaged. The snowfalls in several instances are so heavy that the Air Ministry is unable accurately to gauge them. It is calculated that the fall in London alone exceeded 12,000,000 tons, which, coming on top of 12 hours’, rain at a time when large areas were already flooded, is giving rise to fears of serious consequences. The floods are par. ticularly bad in Yorkshire and the southern counties. The Thames overflowed in many places and hundreds of acres are inundated, including all roads leading to Chertsey and Shepperton, where dwellers in bungalows are marooned. , Gales are raging in the Atlantic, tne English Channel, and the Irish Sea, and many battered vessels are arriving at Plymouth for shelter. Driving snow stopped public clocks and tore the British Broadcasting Company’s ■aerials so that broadcasting had to be cancelled- High seas at Deal swamped the promenade and nearby streets, causing considerable damage, and many aerodromes are waterlogged. The railway authorities, who have been engaged in a ceaseless struggle during the last two days to keep the services going, say it is tne worst time they have had for years. Snowfalls dislocated the services throughout the country, especially on branch lines. The most astonishing exploit of the railwayman was getting the Scottish Express through on her journey from -London only 56 minutes late. A Londonbound train with 60 passengers encountered a landslide in a blinding snowstorm near Stourbridge on Christmas Night. Hundreds of tons of earth and snow fell on the track, the engine being embedded in the debris, and the train derailed, while the coaches were inclined at an angle of 45 degrees. The passengers were terrified and the women became hysterical, but no one was injured. Several other trains had to be dug out of drifts 10 to 12 feet deep.-—A. and N.Z. Cable. SNOW AIDS BURGLARS. VALUABLE FURS STOLEN. LONDON, December 27. (Received Dec. 27, at 10.40 p.m.) The snow aided burglars on Christmas night to steal £4OOO worth of furs from a Regent street shop. They smashed a plate glass window, the glass falling silently on to the snow, and walked in and out of the window as they desired. North-easterly gales are raging in the Channel, and at Deal the waves reached 60ft. , . The usual 70-mmute cross-channel journey from Dover to Calais took four hours, and one boat was unable to leave port at all.—A. and N.Z. Cable.