Great Britain Struck by Fierce Gales and Rain Storms: Whole Districts Under Water: Strange Sights in the Thames Districts From Our Own London, Jan. 1, 1924, so far as the weather is concerned, has ended very much as it has been throughout the entire year, and we are not likely to for-Est it'in a hurry, We expect bad weather most winters, but this year the country has never recovered from the summer rains, and the torrential downfalls of' the final week of 1924 have flooded most parts of the land, They really started on the day after Boxing Day, when there was a gale blowing 60 miles an hour, which swept the country from end to end, So far ay the seaside is concerned, very great destruction has been caused, especially in the English Channel and on the Welsh Coast.
Heavy waves broke over the sea-front at a number of places, flooded buildings and even interrupted the road traffic. Sandgate, Exmouth and Sidmouth were particularly damaged, At Exmouth the gas yorks were flooded and the electric Light failed. In Wales, Aberystwyth suffered most, though at Llandudno the great Orme was almost. surrounded by water. The town of Usk, in the contre of Monmouthshire, was Isolated until Tuesday night. Boatmen and men on horseback rescued families from bedroom windows at Llanfoes, u flooded suburb of Brecon, In' many parts of Ireland damage was done by flooding. The main London, Mid~ Jand & Scotland Railway line near Gleneagles, Perthshire, was blocked for two hours by a landslide, 'A number of ships were wrecked with loss of life and many others were damaged, while there was considerable delay in the Cross-Channel service, which had every. justification for stopping altogether.
The Thames a Lake Water submerged part of the lawn and tea terrace of Skindle's Hotel, Maidenhead, while gardens ind bottom floors of several riverside houses were also under water. Traffic along the iver road from Staines to Windsor had to plough through water stretching for several hundreds of yards. Between Bourne End to Cookham the Ferry-lane was flooded to a depth of nearly 3 ft. [and traffic to be warned of the state of the road by special danger notices. The riverside road below Windsor is Mooded, and the public road across Runnymede from Old Windsor to Egham has been closed owing to river encroachments.
At Abingdon the whole of the low-lying meadow land adjoining the river was completely submerge ed. Farmhouses, barns and stables were the only signs over a wide area that the land now invisible floes not form a permanent. lake bottom. The stream at Pangbourne where the channel deepens, isa surging entaract, The Rivers Kennet and London are in flood.
Between Hungerford and Newbury, where the Kennet runs through Valley of marsh a mile across, there is now one tong lake and swamp. Tt is feared that many fish on the best, trout reaches will be carried away by the current or stray out fof the proper river course and be Tete high and dry. or in. stagnant ditches when the floods recede. A bungalow washed away from a backwater at Weybridge went sailing down the current. The Thames flooded the old, Deer Park at Richmond late on Sunday night, drowning' 30 sheep, while a boatman rescued 15 on a punt. Hundreds Jot rats dislodged by the water, poured into the stree mond and Twickenham, while Gumberland the field. mice were driven to ascend the hedges or tree In the London area the already swollen Thames rose still higher. The Thames Valley, from Kingston upwards for many miles, is a temporary Lake District, ' Meadows, roads and gardens for many miles upstream from Kingston are under water. At Maidenhead the river rose foot in one day, Romney, near Windsor reported a five inches rise, and Teddington six" inches. Around Walton, Shepperton and Chertsey the river as the summer visitor knows it, was lost to. eye. The only way to discover what part of the vista of water covered its channel was to watch the path of steam tugs as they twisted and wound their way through the miles of flooded country. At Chertsey the waters were more than three miles across. The water is over part of the Brooklands motor truck, Tu fact the Thames Conservancy officially admitted the river was quite out of hand.
At the various weirs the river presented a fascinating sight a the swirling waters roared throug!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.