A Terrible Hurricane

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 35, 16 October 1888, Page 2

A Terrible Hurricane

(Per mail steamer at Auckland.)

Details of the cyclone — or more properly hurricane — which occurred on the Island of Cuba on September 4 th, show an awful destruction of life and property. The total damage is estimated at 10,00Q,000dols, and over 800 persons lost their lives. Thousands of persons are homeless, and perishing from hunger. The Spanish Government has distributed 20,000d01s among the sufferers. The greatest damage caused was at Sagua and Isabella, where over 1000 dwellings were destroyed. Here the sea rose 6ft, and many of those who escaped death from the flying timbers were drowned. The loss of life at Sagua alone was about 400. A passenger train in Isabella, running 30 miles an hour, was caught by the wind. The rails were bent as if they were hairpins, and the train was thrown into a marsh, which completely covered it. Seventy-two lives were lost in Cintdad, Aqua. Over 400 houses were destroyed in Caibaneu. The damage is enormous. The total number of lives lost is unknown, but 78 bodies were recovered up to September 14. In Vuelta Abago over 3000 houses, shanties, and other small buildings were totally destroyed. Ten thousand people are left homeless, and there is great misery. The lighthouse situate on Cape Francis was completely demolished, and the lighthousekeeper and two other men drowned. A village called Pueblo Nuevo, in the neighborhood of Sagua, was literally destroyed ; not a vistage remains.