NEW ENGLAND FLOODS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19153, 9 November 1927, Page 11

NEW ENGLAND FLOODS.

BIG DEATH ROLL. VICTIMS RESCUED FROM HOUSETOPS. (BT CABLE PBESS ASSOCIATION"—COPTBIOHT.) (AUSTRALIAN AND X.Z. CABLI ASSOCIATION.) NLW YORK, November 7. The military authorities estimate the death roll as the result of the New England floods at 125. With 76 bodies already identified, it is expected that the first estimate of 200 will ultimately be reached. Fifty thousand are homeless, and more than 50 towns have been devastated. The total property damage is now believed to be over 100,000.000 dollars.

The danger of fire, famine, pestilence, and disease has increased the misery of the suffering population. Fire lias already broken out at Ludlow and Vermont, but lias been controlled after a hard fight in the intense cold. The waters are receding in the worst affected sections of Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, but the crest of the flood has descended into Connecticut., where prospects of great damage are foreseen. Suffering is particularly intense about Montpelier, where all the schools are closed, and will probably not be re-opened for several days. Martial law has been invoked at Barre, where guards are patrolling the ruins of the city, and have orders to shoot looters. Numerous victims of the flood were rescued from the house-tops after being marooned without food or water for 48 hours, and were sent to hospital suffering from exposure. Many homes are submerged to the second storeys. Thousands of farms and industrial plants are crippled or ruined. Electrical power has failed, and candles and lanterns are frequently the only illumination. A food shortage has resulted from the flooded railroads. Aeroplanes are rushing typhoid serum and medicines to the stricken areas.