ARCTIC BLIZZARD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 28 December 1927, Page 5

ARCTIC BLIZZARD.

SWEEPS OVER ENGLAND. A ROUGH CHRISTMAS. Press Association--Electric Telecraph-Copyriglit LONDON, Tuesday, On Christmas night, London and the whole of England wore mantled in snow, an unprecedented Arctic blizzard sweeping the entire country with a sevj eritv unexampled since 1906. It rag- ! ed all niglit, as well as tlie greater part of the day, the temperature being at | freezing point. This is the first time : snow lias fallen on Christmas Day in j London for ill years. I Everything was covered to a depth of | several indies. Trees were weighted ! down, making many pavements imI passable. The absence of heavy trafI lie allowed the snow to accumulate in I the streets, converting the whole of | London Into a gigantic Christmas card. To-dav horse-drawn snow ploughs are working, together with an army of labourers, but are unable to cope w : iii the downfall. ’ln the suburbs, the unexpected visitation of an old-fashioned Christmas brought widespread havoc. Early omnibuses and trams crawled along sedately, while trains were disorganise!], and it was hours before they were able to run anything like their 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 pick up other means of transport. j Several branch line railways were snowed up so that the trains could not run all day. Railwayman describe the conditions as unprecedented, the drifts between Salisbury and Basingstoke being II feet deep in places. Snow ploughs are at present at work clearing the lines. Big Ben stopped owing to the weight of snow accumulating on the hands proving too great for the veteran to manage. This is the first time such a thing lias happened in the clock's history. livery district reports severe falls, and blizzards of varying intensity are causing damage to property and disorganisation in the routine of life. Iu the Beak district of Derbyshire, the blizzard snowed up every road in the region of Matlock, and men are digging their way to isolated villages. Scores of sheep are buried in snowdrifts in the Welsh mountains. The snowfalls iu several instances were so heavy that tlie Air Ministry was unable accurately to gauge them. It is calculated that the fail in London alone exceeded twelve million tons, which, coming on top of twelve hours’ rain at a. time when large areas were already pooled, is giving rise to fears of serious consequences. The Hoods are particularly bad in Yorkshire and in the southern counties. The Thames overflowed in many places and hundreds of acres are inundated, including all roads leading to Chertsey and Nheppei'ton, where dwellers in bungalows are marooned. ■ 'Gales are raging in tlie Atlantic, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Many battered vessels Tire arriving at Plymouth for shelter. High seas at Deal swamped tlie promenade and nearby streets, causing considerable damage. Many aerodromes are waterlogged. The railway authorities, who have been engaged in a-ceaseless struggle for the last two days to keep the services going, say it is the worst time they have had for years. The snow drifts in some places in Devon were .12 to 20 feet deep. Tin- most- astonishing exploit of railwaymon was getting the Scottish express through on its journey from London only 66 minutes Jate. A Londonbound train, with sixty passengers, encountered a landslide in a blinding snowstorm near Stourbridge, on Christmas night. Hundreds of tons of earth and snow fell on tlie track. The engine was embedded in debris and the, train derailed. Tlie coaches were inclined at an angle of 46 degrees. The passengers were terrified and women became hysterical. but no one was injured. Seveial other trains had to be dug out of drifts 16 to 12 feet deep.