Source: Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248359419
Date: 18/03/1947
Event: Floods in southern England "have driven thousands of people from their homes"
Credit: Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Trove (National Library of Australia)
DAILY TELEGRAPH - MAR 18, 1947
NEW FLOOD HAVOC IN BRITAIN
Thousands Homeless
Daily Telegraph Service and A.A.P.
LONDON, Monday: Floods, spreading over a large area of southern England, have driven thousands of people from their homes. Rescuers, with old motor boats and other craft used at Dunkirk, are evacuating marooned families in the Thames Valley. Police, fire-brigade men and troops, with amphibious tanks and sealed lorries, are delivering food to people on the upper reaches of the Thames.
The floods, caused by falling snow, gales, and heavy rain, are the worst in memory. A 70-mile-an-hour gale, which struck London and many other areas yesterday causing widespread damage, blew itself out today. Reports from the Fen Country, the worst flooded district in Britain, say the situation is critical. Many families have evacuated their homes. Three hundred troops have been called in to assist residents.
Five thousand homes are flooded at Maidenhead. Six Maidenhead policemen trying to rescue families from swirling flood waters 20 miles from London, were today swept into the Thames. A British Army major dived off the turret of a Sherman tank and swam to the police with a rope. The policemen hauled themselves to safety.
The Thames, which last night broke its bank below Windsor, was 10 miles wide today. The situation at Windsor is reported to be as bad as during the Great Flood of 1894.
Police rescued a man and his wife who had spent seven hours in a tree at Walton-on-Thames. The couple, who are now in hospital suffering from exposure, had earlier rescued many people by boat before the floodwaters caught them.
In London, 700 water tankers, with a capacity of 500,000 gallons, are supplying water to 1,000,000 people in eastern suburbs, whose water service is polluted because floodwater has overrun the supply channels.