TERRIBLE TORNADO

Hokitika Guardian, 17 September 1928, Page 2

TERRIBLE TORNADO

ENORMOUS LOSS OF LIFE. Australian Press Assn.—United Service NEW YORK, Sept'. 14. Twelve fire known to lie dead; scores injured, and 1,003,030 dollars damage; this is the toll of tornadoes in Nebraska find South Dakota yesterday. A message from Boston states that wind and lightning storms in New England yesterday caused one death and heavy damage. RUGBY, September 14.

A hurricane has swept the "West Indes and serious damage is reported. A telegram from tho Administration of Dominica to tile Colonial Office dated yesterday, states that it will he impossible to estimate tho damage for several days, hut it . is feared to lie heavy. All jetties have been destroyed and heavy damage has been caused to the seafront. There are no communications with the country districts. The Governor of the Leeward Islands reports considerable damago to houses throughout the islands, but details are not yet available.

A GREAT DISASTER. September 15. Reports reaching here from the stricken zone in Porto Rico indicate disasters in the history of the Caribbean sea hurricanes. It is estimated that seventy per cent., of the homes and thirty per cent,, of the commercial buildings have been destroyed in San Juan. Tho homes of thousands of workers along the waterfront have been completely destroyed. One-third of the city’s population is now without shelter.

ANOTHER PLACE VISITED. SAN JUAN, September 15. ' Reports from Ilumacao, on the East Coast of Porto. Rico, state that thirty are dead there as the result of the hurricane. Extensive damage is also reported.

A LUCKY LINER. NEW YORK, September 15. In response to a wireless message from the Associated Press the captain of the Oreoma, with Sir 1 Austin Chamberlain aboard, replied that the ship did not encounter the hurricane. The vessel is due at Havana to-night..

A CITY LEVELLED. NEW YORK, September 15. After a day of garbled and conflicting reports it is indicated that the tornado which worked havoc on Porto Rico, and which had a curious counterpart in tho Mid West of the United States, lias resulted in heavy loss of life in the tremendous property damage.

Communication, which has just been reestablished- with Porto Rico, paints a horrifying picture, of the devastation, While it is impossible yet to determine the human toll, it is certain, that the property loss will reach millions. The latest reports recount , how the tornado blasted its way through San Juan City. It battered the houses to the ground .and reduced tho residential and the commercial section to a mass of hopeless ruins. Hundreds of the occupants of the buildings were killed and injured in. the space of a few minutes.

The entire West Indies wero in horror, anticipating liavoo any moment.

THREE STATES AHSITED. NEW YORK, September 15. The Mid AAjest States—Nebraska, Dakota, and Illinois—were also affected by the tornado. Rockford (Illinois) has suffered the heaviest losses. The Coroner has estimated' the deaths there at between fifty and iseveil ty-five. -C \ One section of the town was practically obliterated. Communication which has just been re-established, increases the fear that the tornado’s toll will< he heavily supplemented by a flood, which is now reported to be gaining headway, and choking off tho avenues of escape. A furniture factory at Rockford collapsed and entombed more than one hundred employees mostly women, many of whom are believed to have been killed instantly. The Red Cross which is handicapped by the meagre reports is rushing aid to the stricken area. NEAA r YORK, September 15. The weather reports indicate that tho hurricane currently is headed toward Florida where a recurrence of the memorable disaster of 1926 seems mow '.an. nnconiSortable /possibility.

A’A ST NUMBER. HOMELESS. AVASHINGTON, Sectember 15. Advices to the U.S.A. Navy and the AA'ar Departments from San Juan, Porto Rico, state that eighty per cent, of the houses in the (city are unroof-* ed. and tens of thousands of persons are homeless. NEW A'OR-K, September 15. Tho American Cable Coy, has been advised by its manager to-day .that ten are dead and seven hundred are homeless at Ponce, in Porto Rico aftor Thursdays hurricane. AHRGIN ISLAND SWEPT. AVASHINGTON, September 15. f The American Red Cross received a message to-day from its representative at St. Croix, Virgin Islands, saying: “A terrific hurricane has swept Virgin Islands. No communication with St Thomas. Hundreds are homeless. Need clothes and money for food.”