HURRICANE AT THE CAROLINES

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2088, 24 May 1907, Page 2

HURRICANE AT THE CAROLINES

UNIVERSAL DEVASTATION

Press Association —Copyright. - SYDNEY, May 22.

Letters received by German residents in Sydney give further details of the hurricane at the Carolines. The islands of Oleai and Italuk appeal to have been the centre of the distu. bailee which raged with terrific fury. Other’ principal islands of the group SSLILr«l l s.v«*, but U» of Ponape, Rule, Yap and Pelew es to an officer of the German surveying corvette Planet, which was despatched to the assistance the distressed islanders not a house remains standing on Oleai, and eveiy cocoanut palm has been st “PP e <l- B ‘ sides 20 people drowned at Oleai, 25 natives perished at Ifaluk. While the hurricane was at i height a tidal wave swept Oleai. the German Cimmissioner was visiting the island at the time. His schooner was blown to sea, but eventually reached the island of Saipan, m the Marianne group. The Resident Commissioner of Saipan at once organised a relief expedition, and but for th - probably the whole of the survivors of Oleai would have perished from starvation, as no boat was due to call at the island for four months. lbe island of Mokemoke suffered considerably. All the food supplies were destroyed. The Planet rescued one hundred natives of this island, and took them to Yap to save them dying from starvation.