Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

26 articles on this Page

- RAGING TORRENT.

News
Cite
Share

RAGING TORRENT. TERRIBLE WELSH DAM DISASTER. An appalling disaster, involving grea< damage to property and serious loss of life, befell the mining village of Blaenclydach, in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales, on Friday. The catastrophe was caused by an enor. mous volume of water, long pent up in a disused colliery working, breaking through the side of the hill above the village and pouring through the village itself. For three hours the torrent continued to flow, houses and children were washed away, and onE woman was drowned in her bed. Foui bodies have been recovered, and it is feared more are missing. Workmen who were asleep were injured by the collapse of theii houses. Up to a late hour on Friday night four victims had been identified. They were Mrs. Evan Williams and her baby, aged four months; Blodwen Davies, daughter of the manager at the Cambrian Collieries; and Gwyneth Howells, daughter of a clerk at the Cambrian offices. Operations at the colliery level ceased five years ago, and since then water had accumulated. The recent heavy rains swelled the pent-up floods, and the soil, soaked by the incessant downpours, at length gave way. Anticipating the calamity the Rhondda District Council had inspected the site, and had even erected a dam as a precaution; but once the water found a way of escape nothing could avert the calamity. The torrent swept down the hillside and dashed through houses and shops in the main street, sweeping furniture and everything before it. CHILDREN SWEPT AWAY. The flood surged into the .Council school, where nearly a thousand children were at lessons. Instantly the place was a scene of tremendous excitement, but the teachers suc- ceeded in maintaining some sort of dis- cipline. In the playground, however, the young- sters were caught by the full force of the torrent and swept off their feet. Then the boundary wall broke down, and many chil- dren were carried away for a distance of 200 yards. Fortunately, however, these were eventually rescued. From the school build- ing itself some children and teachers had to be rescued by ladders and carried to places of shelter. It was feared that two or more children were drowned, and colliers coming home from work, on hearing the news, com- menced digging imder the foundations of the boundary walls, looking for bodies. Many more school children would have been drowned but for the bravery of the teachers, who strained every nerve under trying circumstances. A house in the village was completely demolished, and two others are in. ruins. A portion of Saron Chapel was also destroyed. By six o'clock the water had partially sub- sided. Then came the anxious search for missing villagers. The majority had saved themselves, but Mrs. Williams was drowned while in bed on the ground floor. The rush of water was so sudden that before she could do anything she and her baby were over- whelmed. Several other bodies have been recovered, but identification has not been yet estab- lished in all cases. The bodies of the two young girls drowned were found in the school playground. In the street the water rose to between seven and ten feet in depth. SIX DEATHS. Two more bodies—those of little girls named Brindle and Rees-have been dis- covered, bringing the total number of vic- tims to six. The father of the little girl Brindle had picked her up and was making for a place of safety when he was caught by the flood and lurled against a wall. He lost his hold on the child, who was swept along for a hundred yards until she was seized by another man. She was alive when taken from the water, but though she recovered temporarily when artificial respiration was tried, she collapsed- and succumbed shortly after. The wife of the Rev. F. B. John, the local Baptist minister, was, 'With her newly-born child, rescued with the greatest difficulty. The wife of the Rev. S. B. Lloyd was in her room with a child a few hours old, and would have been at the mercv of the flood had not Mr. Dan W. Jones, a local colliery official. gone to her assistance. Mr. Jones waded through the strong current into the house, which was in danger of collapsing under the enormous pressure of water, and Mrs. Lloyd and the infant were then safely conveyed to a neighbouring house. The body of Gertie Rees was discovered ini a pool near the school. It is a strange coin- cidence that the disastrous Clydach Vale explosion, when over forty lives were lost, occurred five years ago on Saturday, and Gertie Rees was born on the night of the ex- plosion. Many of the children rescued bear evi-, dence of their terrible experiences. A num- ber are covered with bruises, for some poor little ones had their clothes torn completely off while they were being rescued. In all eleven houses and a shop were either de-. stroyed or badly shattered, and the damage is estimated at thousands of pounds. The level in which the water had accumu- lated was a mile in extent and its contents must have been greatly increased as the re- sult of the recent rains the v -me of water let loose must have been many millions of gallons..

TWO IRISH MEMBEks DEAD. -4

[No title]

HOME HINTS.

..."- USEFUL RECIPES.

---..i...-------MAKE YQUR…

[No title]

POSITION RESIGNED THROUGH…

■— MILKMAN'S TRAGIC DISCOVERY.

.CAKES AND PUDDINGS.—No. 24.

, JAM SANDWICHES.

[No title]

BOGUS GERMAN BARON. .'

-0 RIGHT AWAY!

EXPERIMENTS WITH A WELL-KNOWN…

. FUMES OVERCOME FIREMEN.

. ø A MOTHER'S CONFESSION.

[No title]

FCRGBD TELEGRAMS. i'.i

........•- "......... ■ i…

..,r BREAKFAST-TABLE TRAGEDY.

. THE SPORT OF KINGS.

Advertising

[No title]

Advertising

[No title]