SWEPT BY BLIZZARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26703, 24 February 1948, Page 5

SWEPT BY BLIZZARD

BRITAIN’S BITTER WEATHER

TOWNS AND VILLAGES ISOLATED N.Z.P.A.—Copyright

Rec. 11 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 22. England and Wales are in the grip of another freeze-up. Blizzards, borne by a biting east wind from Siberia, that struck 43 counties yesterday, continued to-day. Snow and ice hindered transport, isolated farms and villages, and caused road accidents.

Weather experts warned of more to come. Snow ploughs,' trying to keep communications open, are succeeding an the railways, but failing on many roads.

There are snow drifts six feet deep in Kent. Croydon had a fall of eight inches, with four-foot drifts. With temperatures well below freezing point and expected to remain so to-day and to-night, many country bus services were suspended, and football, turf and other sporting fixtures were cancelled. Many trains were delayed. Londoners went to work wearing ski boots, Wellingtons, balaclavas, service greatcoats and flying jackets. Children began tobogganing in open spaces, but the blizzard soon drove many indoors, half-frozen. Some milkmen in North-west London improvised sleighs. ' Frost, ice and snow brought down telegraph wires, blocked roads and caused widespread electricity cuts. Fifty London University students, half of them girls, helped to clear the snow from Holborn streets at trade union rates.

The Ministry of Agriculture has asked the public to help feed hungry wild birds with breadcrumbs—but not bread —fish heads, fish skin, cheese rind, and bacon rind. Although the home counties suffered the worst, with falls of six inches to twelve inches, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Central Wak are also badly affected.

Two men so far have died in the blizzard. One w’as found dead in the snow, and the other collapsed. Eleven people in a bus were injured when it skidded and crashed into a railwayarch in. Sussex.

Several villages in Kent and a number of West Denbighshire hill farms and villages are isolated. Many sheep, it is feared, are buried in the snow. About 50 ships are storm-bound in the Thames Estuary, and Atlantic liners have been warned that gales would delay their arrival in Britain. Bulldozers and snow ploughs have intensified their battle against mounting snowdrifts as high as 10 feet, which have already cut off several villages and threaten to disrupt transport across the whole of Southern England The blizzard raged all night, and two more days of snow are predicted. Casualties have increased. A driver was killed when his furniture van overturned in Leicestershire. The temperature was 15deg Fahrenheit in parts of the south.

The Ministry of Transport, using aviation forecasting stations, is flashing weather warnings to railway stations. With snowfalls up to 12 inches during the night, road conditions have grown steadily worse. The blizzard buried snow ploughs near East Dean, in Sussex. The roads over much of South-east England are particularly dangerous for light traffic. Patrols fed moorland ponies on Exmoor. Falmouth, where snow is rarely seen, had half an inch and a temperature of 24deg. Frost and snow also gripped large areas of Eire, Denmark, France, Germany, and Italy. The river Spree, in Berlin, froze. While snow ploughs and road gangs worked all day to open blocked roads and force a wav to isolated villages in Southern England, the temperature rose slightly, and a slow thaw began in London and Sputh-east England. The temperature in London rose to 34deg Fahrenheit at 4 p.m., and remained stationary for several hours. There are indications, however, of frost early to-morrow. The Air Ministry warned of gales round the south and east coasts. , , .. Men with snow ploughs fought a 20hour battle to keep open the more important roads in Derbyshire. Armoured cars converted into snow ploughs opened one road three times during the day, but snow blocked it each time. Gangs of men rescued the occupants of cars stranded in snowdrifts. Farmers and shepherds spem the week-end rescuing sheep.