THE AMERICAN TORNADO

Hokitika Guardian, 21 March 1925, Page 2

THE AMERICAN TORNADO

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION ROLL MOUNTING UP. NEW YORK. March 19. With more authentic reports arrivin,r the list of casualties and damage to property resulting lrom the tornado is sleadilv mounting. It is thought that the deaths range from seven hundred to one thousand. The number of injured exceeds three thousand. 31. TOWNS DESTROYED. NEW YORK, March 19. Twenty-four hours after the disastrous tornado, the details which aio coming in only intensify the horror of Hie tragedy, which has claimed so large a Toll of life in live States. _ The reports from Tennessee now indicate that 2 ) were killed there.

No less than 31 towns were completely destroyed, and the damage to property is as yet untold. President Cooiidge immediately do, ’< 1 the National IL'd Cross to marshal all its elfoiTs for relief work, and this organisation, alongside with the Federal and State, and ajso private institutions have combined in the great task of caring for the injured, sheltering the homeless, hunting lor bodies in the tangled debris, helping .families to identify their dead, and to intprove-

vise morgues. Mnnv little towns and villages were filled with victims, while makeshift hospitals were working incessantly, taking no rest. One liumlrccl. and illiy c*ar-n>;u.s ol supplies and provisions have been despatched to the various afllieted centres. Tim burials in most places will In* wholesale, there hejpg neither time nor opportunity for individual interment. The pre.seneo of troops at various places has proved a Godsend, as looting was going on. Six arrests have already been renorted. The troops, moreover pressed sightseers into scivico with axes, shovels, and as .stretcher hearers. Water and light have proved tin* two "rent needs, since rescue work is impeded at night, due to the severam:* of all the electric wires, and the broken water mains. This has increased the risk of pestilence. The women and children provided the greatest number of deaths. The storm came with such suddenness that any preparation against danger was impossible. This area, which often is subjected to evelones and wind disturbances, is generally provided with adequate means of protection'ill the slinpc of so-called evclone cellars, to which people hasten on the first sign of disturbance, but this tornado cauht the populace miawn res.

TERRIBLE FORGE OF WIND. NEW YORK. March 20. 11l the tornado, tin* wind was freakish. whipning close to the ground at times and thou lifting, high, and carryin" debris like a black living cloud, moving with the greatest imaginable rapidity. . . Relief elfoiTs are being centred, in the towns and villages, hut the isoluted rural dwellers have also suffered great damage, and there, with the exception of iiura-coiiinmnity aid. Die people are virtually without assistance. . Hundreds throughout this area are homeless. The mouth of Mari h. which usually is bitterly wintry throughout the aflliotod area, is mercifully mild just now, partial!v reducing the siiflering. The storm came a few minutes before the schools were let out in most places, and thus caught the. children within the sclioolhouses, killing laige nuniißTN ol thorn.

Fires n re still burning in ninny comniunities. and the work of extinguishing them is rendered more difficult by the inflammable nature of the debris and 1 lie* lack of water. A month’s relief work will he necessary before anything like adequate care <aii fie given to the afflicted areas.