STORM TOLL IN AMERICA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22515, 24 September 1938, Page 7

STORM TOLL IN AMERICA

More Than 400 Killed NATIONAL DISASTER FEARED Canada : and United States Affected (UNITED PSESB ASSOCIATION—COPTBIGHT.) (Received September 23' 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, September 22. As reports are received from affected areas it appears that at least 400 have . been killed by the hurricane which struck the Atlantic seaboard of the United States and Canada yesterday and last night. As yet it is riot possible to estimate accurately the total deaths or the damage caused by floods and wind. The damage was placed originally at 100,000,000 dollars. Later reports indicate that the hurricane traversed six American States, Canada, and Newfoundland, and it seems likely that ■ this figure will be increased more than four times. . In New England, the dead number 104. The south shore of Long Island was devastated, 12 being killed. Fire Island was smashed by a 40foot tidal wave. Two.are dead. There was one death in New Jersey and one death in New York. Fire followed the storm in several Connecticut cities.. Three thousand, were taken to hospital, and 3000. are homeless in the storm area. A later message states that .the most serious disaster at Long Island, was at Westhampton, .where eight are dead arid 50 are missing.... One hundred summer cottages owned by .the wealthiest people were swept out to sea. At Lowell, Massachusetts, doctors removed a boy’s eye by candlelight when the power failed. At Middleton, Connecticut, the State Hospital was a scerie of horror when insane patients rioted at the height of the hurricane. . The tail of the hurricane finally whipped its way across Montreal to Northern Canada, .The part of the storm which hit Newfoundland was the worst for a century. Mr Roosevelt has ordered all available • Governmental aid for the stricken communities where the hurricane/ damage varies from 'a fallen tree across, a motor-car to the destruction of whole" areas. . At Boston, Providence,. Hartford, New London arid Long 'lsland numerous trains. were overturned and miles of concrete roads torn up. The contours of beaches were changed, thousands of - houses were destroyed . and. bridges . were torn down., ... Communications and power lines over wide areas are dislocated. The wind reached a velocity of-120 miles an hour in -New York city and is believed to have been higher elsewhere.' Coastguards and Red Cross and other .workers . are 1 ministering, to hundreds of injured and are searching for more. , As communication gradually becomes restored the picture of havoc and death becomes more horrible. The toll of lives may reach more than 500 with 400 bodies already recovered. ; The, damage is now estimated to exceed 400,000,000 dollars. Ten thousand families are homeless and in great need. Rhode Island, with 250 dead and extensive damage by tidal waves, seems the ; hardest . hit with.. Long Island next. Martial law has been declared in many towns. The Connecticut and Merrimac rivers are both already 33 feet above flood level arid have inundated Hartford’and other cities, driving thousands from their homes and further aggravating the situation which is rapidly assuming the proportions of a national disaster. /