RIVER THAMES OUT OF CONTROL WITH FLOOD WATERS

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 March 1947, Page 5

RIVER THAMES OUT OF CONTROL WITH FLOOD WATERS

BLIZZARD SEVERS ROAD COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND

Received 9.25 p.m. ' LONDON, March 15 Swollen by flood waters from snow melted in the thaw on Thursday and yesterday, the Thames River is reported by a Thames Conservancy official at Reading to be out of the board's control. The river is still rising and the position is serious, as the river is likely to break a record whch has stood for fifty years. The Thames is thret’-quariers of a mile wide at Reading, and at Windsor the level is Ihe highest for fifteen years, the river being sft. Sin. above bank level.

A thaw in the south and in the Midlands has brought extensive floods, while another heavy blizzard in the north has virtually severed communication between England and Scotland. Overflowing rivers have already flooded thousands of acres in the south and in the Midlands, and with further rain and snow predicted, the waters have not yet reached their peak.

The floods cut off more than 10,000 London telephone subscribers and plans have been made to evacuate many homes. Firemen had to fight a fire which damaged the Preston Guildhall and brought part of the clock-tower crashing into the street with a 401 b. bell. Water from the hoses was frozen into icicles and frost jammed the mechanism of turntable ladders. When the flood waters receded from Bridge, in Essex, rats swarmed into houses and attacked unguarded food supplies. Planes dropped food to starving sheep in several places. ROAD TO SCOTLAND BLOCKED All roads to Scotland are impassable and Newcastle is practically isolated. Lumps of ice drifted on the flood water through the three main streets of Bedford, which is under water as

a result of the Great Ouss bursting its banks. Twenty-five Bedfordshire villages are also flooded. At least two people are missing. One is a priest whose car was found submerged in the River Frome, near j Wareham, in Dorset. The other man has not been seen since he left a pub-lic-house near Chelmsford, in Essex. The floods blocked many railway lines. One company reported six lines flooded and 31 others still affected by Isnow or snow damage. Families in houses around the London waterworks awoke at 3 a.m. to find river water rushing into the basements and ground boors. The Water Board asked people in eight East London districts to boil water before using it for cooking or drinking. A blizzard is sweeping South Wales. The temperature in London was 37 degrees at mid-day. Eskdalemuir, in Dumfriesshire, had 26 degrees of frost overnight. The forecast is for snow spreading across Britain from the south-west, prolonged and heavy in the north. Floods following the great thaw inundated the Metropolitan Water Board’s filter beds, causing the board to bring into operation a wartime emergency organisation of water-tank wagons and mobile filtration plants. The military have been asked to help. All London must economise, says the board. The River Volne, at Denham, burst its banks last night and quickly spread and blocked the Oxford Road. Rescue parties brought people from marooned houses.