TORNADO DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 18 September 1928, Page 2

TORNADO DISASTER

PORTO RICO’S PLIGHT. Australian Press Assn.—United Service PORTO RICO, Sept. 16. Partly re-established communications are revealing additional fatalities as the result of Thursday’s hurricane.

Conservative estimates now place the material damage above fifty millions. Probably well over one hundred were killed in Porto Rico and hundreds were seriously injured. The destruction at Ponce has been terrific. Food, clothing, and medical assitancc are desperately needed.

Reports are coming in slowly, and it will doubtless he some time before tho damage in the smaller districts is known.

Governor Towner stated: “ Hie disaster is greater than was at first reported.”

HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS. WASHINGTON, Sept. 16. Half the population of Porto Rico arc homeless. The extent of the damage resulting from tho hurricane is increased in the reports received on Sunday by the Government.

Governor Towner of Porto Rico, in a cable pleading for food and clothing for the sufferers, said that great help >s needed, declaring, that the situation is so terrible as to demand immediate action. Leading citizens of. Porto Rico have petitioned the Governor to impose martial law through the island, and to requisition all of the food supplies, and to draft all able-bodied men Tor relief work.

DEATH ROLL GROWING! SAN JUAN, Sept. 16. More than 250 persons were actually reported dead up to six o’clock on Sunday night in nine out of the seventyseven towns of Porto Rico, as the result of the hurricane. More than seventy per. cent of the island’s population live in rural sections, from which it may be week’s before accurate reports are received. A careful check of the damage lias resulted in the total estimate of sev-enty-five million dollars, with many items unlisted, which, it is believed, will increase it to one hundred million dollars. ' The estimated losses in millions of dollars include the following:—Coffee crop, ten million dollars; coffee trees, ten million dollars; sugar cane crop, twenty million dollars; sugar centrals, five million dollars; tobacco crop, five million dollars; citrus crop; five million dollars; railways and power damage, three million dollars; telegraph and telephone losses, two million dollars.

OVER 2009 DEAD. ALL PORTO RICO DEVASTATED. PORTO RICO, Sept. 16. Later estimates of the hurricane fatalities, which still are considered to he conservative, estimate the dead at two thousand, while tens of thousands are homeless. The property damage is well over a hundred million dollars. Miraculously there was only one person killed at. San Juan, which is the 'capital of Porto Rico, hut the rest ot tho island virtually has been ruined. All of the crops are destroyed. The canneries and the sugar refineries were rased just as they were beginning to handle bumper crops. All of the bridges are gone, and the roads aro ruined. Pestilence and starvation are appearing amid the welter of wreckage and fire, and landslides are occurring everywhere. ' Whole sides of mountains have, been swept into the valleys, and practically all of the trees have been destroyed.

THE ILLINOIS TORNADO. NEW YORK, Sept. 16. As the result of the hurricane at Rockford, in Illinois State, the death total there is now nine, and five more bodies are believed to have been located,

FLORIDA’S TURN. STORM BREAKS ON ITS COAST. NEW YORK, Sept. IG. Florida reports are most vague, but the West Coast of the State is expecting the storm to reach there soon, as it is experiencing extraordinary weather conditions. Red Cross units are leaving Washington for the South. The Vice-Presidential nominee, Senator Robinson, who is in Florida, is aiding in the relief work. FLORIDA ISOLATED BY STORMS. NEW YORK, Sept. 17. News from Miami Beach states that West Palm Beach and a strip (if the East Coast of Florida, fifty miles in length, became ioslated on Sunday night by the West Indian hurricane. Apprehension is now growing, as there has been no word received from this area. FORTY-FOOT WAVES SWEEP OVER SHORE LINE. NEW YORK, Sept. IG. A message from Jacksonville states: The gravest anxiety is prevailing in Florida to-niglit, as a hurricane, .-pro*' lialily unprecedented in its intensity, is flinging itself against the East Coast with destructive fury.

The fear has been brought to the residents of the coast towns and cities by terrific winds, sweeping rains, and tremendous seas.

Before the communications with Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, which are the centre of the storm, went out, a ninety miles an hour wind was reported. There were forty-foot waves breaking over the boulevaids. Much damage had already been done to the trees, and the smaller homes; automobiles were blocking the roads as the people were trying to flee from the danger zones.

Messages received in Boston state that Miami Beach also is suffering and the people arc packing into storm-proof houses. No word is obtainable 'from the Bahama Islands, so it is felt that the hurricane has destroyed the radio station there.

The Naval Station at Jupiter Inlet in Florida has been destroyed. No lives are yet reported as lost there, but no communications remain where tho hurricane is most severe.

RED CROSS RELIEF. (Received this day at 9.30 a.m). WASHINGTON, Sopt. 17. The Red Cross is enlisting all available surgical aid to follow an initial contingent of relief workers into the stricken Florida area, where the 192 G disaster is now being vividly reenacted. Spasmodic reports reaching Jacksonville, where the relief campaign is being directed, advise that Miami is virtually unharmed. The tornado is reported at present to he sweeping in tho direction of Tampa, after leaving in its wake dislocation at Palm Beach.

REPORTS OF HAPPENINGS. Eye-witnesses prior to the disruption of tho telegraph service reported having seen houses and barns in tho vicinity of Tampa lifted intact into the air and hurled hundreds of feet, to be shattered to bits in the feconV

Tampa residents who presumed the, tornado was likely to spend itself liefore reaching the city, are now said to be evacuating the city in droves. It is regarded as likely, that the tornado will lose its fury upon reaching the Gulf of Mexico, but great fear is expressed at the ultimate damage to Tampa. The Government experts who were despatched post haste to Palm ITwh are making every- energy to prevent the spread of typhoid. Engineers and contractors are working ceaselessly in the effort-to re-establish electric current and repair the damage to the water system. FORCE OF TORNADO ABATED. A? WASHINGTON, Sep. 17. Reports from tlie Mid-West indicates that the tornado has abated Complete-

Salvage work at Rockford in Illinois is now proceeding. The flood waters which yesterday threatened to invade tlieh city have receded, enabling rescuo work to continue uninterruptedly. PORTO RICA’S PLIGHT. WASHINGTON, Sep. 17. Official reports indicate tlpt the situation in Porto Rico is becoming increasingly desperate. It is estimated that seven hundred thousand are destitute and facing starvat'on. Tho water., supply is entirely cut off, and food prices are at a maximum. The United States Red Cross Ims authorised tho Porto Rican branch to purchase twenty thousand dollars worth of food and distribute it immediately. . , A United States Government destroyer is enroute for Porto Rico. She has been converted into ahospital\sbip for the use of the Red Cross.