DISASTROUS STORM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2733, 11 February 1910, Page 7

DISASTROUS STORM.

ENGLAND UNDER FLOOD

LOSS OF LIFE

A storm of a remarkable character, leaving in its track havoc on land and sea, swept the British Isles during Tuesday night, December 21, and the morning of December 22. Various types of weather were experienced, and the changes from heat to cold and from blinding snow to torrential rain were as sudden as they were violent. \ At Tipton St. John, near Sid mouth, Devon, the post office collapsed. For several hours torrential rain and tempestuous wind had prevailed, and the mill feat, which runs by the post office, had overflowed and joined the River Otter. The terrible weather and the creaking of timber awoke the station-, master, Air Grindley, who lives near. He hurried to the post office, the occupants of which—Mr Mood and his wife, mother, and three children —had already risen in alarm. They hastened from the building not a minute too soon, for it collapsed just as they left it. The greater part of the furniture and stock was swept away by th e current. Two cottages near the post office 'were demolished later.

Many sheep were drowned in the Ex. moutli marshes, and near Exeter the curious sight was seen of men saving sheep from an island formed in a large field bv ferrying them one by one in a tub. In two instances pigs were rescued from their sties and taken upstairs into the bedrooms of the dwellinghouses.

A blizzard of almost unexampled violence was experienced in North Staffordshire. The snow drifted in many places to a deipth of from 6ft to 10ft. The hurricane tore off the roof of the Potteries Tramway Company’s shed at Mav Bank, and did damage to the amount of £3OO. A tramway car leaving Hanley for Goldenhill was snowed 0)7 and did not- reach its destination, six miles away, until the following morning, a gang of 200 men having in the meantime to cut through snow drifts 7ft deep. At Biljingborough, Lincolnshire, water flowed through the streets like a river, and in places it was ISin deep. Several houses were flooded, and others were quite isolated. Mr Lionel Walrond, M.P. for the Tiverton division of Devonshire, had an exciting experience of the weather. He was motoring home with his wife to Bradfield from a political meeting far afield, when, owing' to the slippery state of the roads, his car had to be abandoned. Another car, containing a party of journalists and speakers, met with the same fate. Led bv Mrs TValrond, the party struggled through the wet and slush to the little town of Banipton. Bain was coming down in torrents, but the warty decided to go on to Bradfield. The last fifteen miles was begun in an open waggonette. A mile from Tiverton a search party met the bedraggled travellers, and took Mrs Walrond in their car. At. Tiverton fresh horses and closed carriages were obtained, and the partv got to Bradfield at four o’clock, in the morning. About 7.30 on the morning of December 22 men were working in a cutting about a-quarter of a mile from Upper Warlingham station, on the London, Brighton, and South Coast railway, when about a ton of olialk collapsed, owing to the sudden thaw, and nnrt of it fell across the down line. The 7.44 train from Victoria was seen to be approaching. The men signalled to the driver to stop, but before he could pull up the engine and first coach had run into the chalk. Fortunately neither was derailed. The rear axle boxes or the coach were damaged. The train proceeded after . half a n hour’s delay. No one was injured. The fishing smack Victoria was sunk with all hands off Ivin tyre, Argyllshire. There was a crew of five men. The smack was driven on the rocks by the storm.

Two vessels ran ashore on the Northumberland coast. The steamer May, from Leith to the Tyne, went ashore at Boulmer and became a total wreck. The erew were rescued by the lifeboat. The lighter Magnet, of Middlesbrough, went ashore at North Biyth. The lifeboat which went to the rescue was thrown on its beam ends, and the crew of 16 were precipitated into the water. All, however, succeeded in getting into the boat again, and the erew of the lighter were taken off. The trawler Shamrock, of Grimsby, stranded on the Holderness coast. Yorkshire. All her erew were rescued except .Charles Bayrnan, the steward, who was drowned.

The Grimsby steam trawler Saxon brought to port eight survivors of the crew of the steamer John, hound from Middlesbcrough to London with coal, which ran ashore at Easington. The Easington coastguards had tried to get the -men off by the rocket apparatus, hut had failed. The men jumped from the rigging into tl e sea and wore then picked up by the Saxon’s boat. The chief engineer was drowned. The German liner iSalatis. 4764 tons register, ran ashore near Jury’s Gap, between Dungenness Point and Rye The vessel grounded on a rising tide; and was driven high up on the shore. The Winchelsea lifeboat' and the Downing Crundall were standing by the steamer.

The American liner Friesland, due at Queenstown, had not been reported np to a late hour. No anxiety, however, was felt for her sa-fet- the assumption being that she, like other liners, had met the full force of the storm and was delayed by the violent weather in the Atlantic.

The roof of a Sheffield skating rink collapsed owing to the weight of the snow. . A huge tree fell across a main road in Cheshire and severed 40 telegraph wires. Near Newry the body of a postman ■was found in the snow, .the man having succumbed to exposure. Mr John Henry Toodyear, aged 66, a Huddersfield tradesman, of Bay Hill, Birkby. fell dead while shovelling snow from the front of his house. j At 'Hanley a plumber named John Goulan on the roof of the town hall lost his foothold owing to the snow and fell into the street, sustaining severe injuries. Two colliers at Silvordale, Staffordshire, were unable to battle through the snowstorm, and wore rescued by search parties in an exhausted condition.

In Anglesey and Cardiganshire the snowdrifts covered the hedges along the main roads. Several motor cars were snowed up, the occupants seeking refuge in the, nearest farms. While fishing on the Alderney Rocks Sergeant-Major Thoussel, of the Royal Alderney Militia, was- swept into the sea, succeeding waves washing him back on the same rock. He was seriously injured.