TIDAL WAVE HAVOC

Hokitika Guardian, 25 November 1929, Page 6

TIDAL WAVE HAVOC

IN N EWEOUNI)LA XD

CO A SPLIN E C H AND ED

Fnited T> n’ c i Association—By Electric Teleg'i iph—Copyright).

ST. JOHN’S. Nov. 23

The tidal -wave that followed Moilday’s Atlantic earthquake, 'two and a half hour later, came at' night. It has altered the configuration of the land on the Peninsula- of Burin, on the south of Newfoundland. One woman displayed heroism, 'find lost her life. She was Mrs Vincent Kelly, of Kelly’s Grove, Burin Peninsula. From her house Airs Kelly .first rescued two of her children. She then went back in a desperate effort to save a third child, when the habitation was carried away to sea. Neither the mother nor the child was seen again. Another family was seated at tea. when their house suddenly shifted. It then came back to its position. As it moved again, the father seized a child under each arm. and with his wife on his back lie struggled through the water to safety. One motorist who . was approaching) Burin won a thrilling race when a bridge which he was crossing went down as the rear wheels of the car reached the further side. The steamer Daisy rose above the Government wharf at Burin, and as the water subsided, she rested on the bottom, where the normal depth is 18 feet. The most serious condition is the privation from the destruction of the homes’ winter .supply of provisions and fuel, and practically all of the fishing gear. Billing, the largest town affected, lias a population of twelve hundred. The wave rose forty feet ~sweeping all the waterfront property. The wave struck Burin at night two hours after the ’quake. In the darkness there more appalling incidents.

From all sides came cries for help. So 'bare of everything in certain localities are the Burin waterfronts, that no evidence remains of their ever being inhabited. The bouses riding on the Burin inlet seas were searched by rescuers from the Daisy immediately after the wave struck, but no living tiling could be found. In one upper room a light burned wanly in the darkness. AX EARLIER TIDAL WAVE. HALIFAX (N.'S.L Nov. 2.3. The Dutch steamer Stadvladin-ger reported that three of her crew were swept overboard and drowned by a tidal wave last Sunday.