TERRIFIC STORMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 140, 16 June 1931, Page 7

TERRIFIC STORMS

DESTRUCTION IN BRITAIN ROW OF HOUSES DEMOLISHED TERRIFYING experiences LOSS OF LIFE REPORTED (By Telegraph—Press Association- -Copyright. J Received June J ">, 10.30 p.m. LO-.DON, June 14. One was killed and ten. injured when a whirlwind struck Bum ngnain, uprooting hundreds of trees, lifting roofs and chimneys bodily, and breaking fences and windows. An elderly woman, sheltering from a terrific thunderstorm preceding the whirlwind, was killed by falling debris when the tops of two houses were demolished. The full force of the wind was felt at Spark Hill, where it burst on a row of 1? houses, lifting off the roofs and tumbling masses of bricks into the bedrooms. A woman and a baby in bed, had a remarkable escape when the bed and other furniture disappeared beneath a load of masonry. Lightning struck two houses tearing out the fireplaces and bursting the walls. The streets resembled a war-time scene in France after gun fire. Several families are homeless. Following a heat wave, severe storms burst elsewhere in England. The Severn rose seven feet at Cheltenham, inundating hundreds of houses. Streets were flooded at Blackpool, where the tramways were suspended. During the height of a thunderstorm at Leeds, a fiery ball was seen in the sky, followed by a peal of thunder which shook the houses. The storms missed London. They were most intense in the Midlands and north of England. They were pieceded by remarkable falls in the baro meter. An official at Birmingham observatory stated that the variations were the greatest he remembered. A British private monoplane was caught in a whirlwind at Verneuil. Tt crashed ,on fire and tne pilot, Harold Brock, also a passenger. James Robertson. were killed instantly. Deaths on the Continent. On the Continent the same storm upset a boat on Lake Aix le Bains, drowning five. A motor car was blown into a canal at Dunkirk, when two were drowned. The river overflowed at Vienna, flooding houses, five of the inmates being drowned. The Daily Mail says that although the whirlwind and track of rain was only a few hundred yards wide, the damage is estimated at thousands sterling. At Smalhearth Park, fences were wrecked and outbuildings hurled down like a pack of cards. Almost every tree in the park was levelled, many being oaks and elms a century old. The whirlwind supports scientists’ theory that the English climate is changing.