GALE AND FLOODS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 859, 31 December 1929, Page 9

GALE AND FLOODS

TREMENDOUS SEAS IN ENGLISH CHANNEL LARGE AREAS UNDER WATER British Official Wireless Reed. 11.13 a.m. RUGBY, Monday. Yet another severe gale, with gusts reaching a velocity of 83 miles an houi-, swept the British Isles, Northern France and the North Sea during the week-end. The wind moderated today, but unsettled conditions are likely to remain. Tremendous seas were running in the English Channel and the Straits of Dover, and lifeboat crews were kept standing by in case of emei-gency. Incessant rains caused a recurrence of flooding in many distx-icts, but the lower Thames levels were not appreciably higher. In the Oxford district, however, large stretches of water cover the lowlying meadows in the east, and in North Yorkshire thousands of acres are covered with water, which in parts is 6ft deep. In North Wales many roads are again impassable. When the River Dee burst its banks near Corwen yesterday morning, farmers lost many cattle and sheep, despite all attempts at rescue. The storm cai-ried away an aerial of the British broadcasting short-wave station at Chelmsford. Other stations worked normally, but the mishap at Chelmsford necessitated the abandonment of the ai-rangement for bi-oadcasting the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon, delivered last night at Canterbury Cathedral.