FLOOD DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 25 October 1928, Page 6

FLOOD DISASTER

. .;•••; ,;v -. -w y ■' • • " . .ON MADRAS COAST. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). v * * v j . • - - ■’ •<

CALCUTTA, Oct. 23. . " Torrential rain fell for forty-eight hours in the North Madras coast, and resulted in a breakdown of the communications between, Madras , and Calcutta, the railway track and bridges being swept away in the Vizagapatam area. : A special breakdown train which was reconnoitring, was precipitated into a washout. Two senior railway officials, Air Travener (District Traffic Superintendent) and his assistant, Mr Temple, ; tab missing. ! \ «*** ’ • . ' LONDON, Oct. 24. Tre floods are increasing on the Madras coast. They are the worst for twenty years. The countryside is inundated for hundreds of miles. • Villages and homesteads have been completely obliterated. It is feared there is heavy loss of life and. of cattle. •'Long stretches of the railway line, sta'tions and 'bridges have been dei molished.

' Tho bodies of the two missing European railway officials and an Indian loco driver have been recovered from the -engine, which, a& already mentioned, was swept off the line by the floods.

The rainfall was sixteen inches during the week-end. ! . The railway ‘ and telegraphic traffic" are dislocated.