SAN DOMINGO DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 8 September 1930, Page 5

SAN DOMINGO DISASTER

CORPSES EEING CREMATED. (United, BrEn AMociaiion—By Electric Telegraph—OopyrigLt). NEW YORK, September 5. Sanitary authorities at Santo Domingo, fearing plague, have ordered all wreckage to be burned. Hundreds of bodies owing to lack--of time for bur- . ial, have been cremated. i * The British, American ,nhd Haitian rv Legations. were demolished. SUPPLIES BY AIR ONLY. NEW YORK, September 6. Mr Charles Curtis, the United States Minister to Santo Domingo, has announced that.' a conservative estimate of the dead was fifteen hundred, and of the injured five thousand. The United States Marine Corps from Haiti arrived at Santo Domingo with medical supplies. No shipping can enter the port because of the swiftness of the current. The capital is stili Isolated oil the | land side by floods, failed trees, and yS wrecked bridges. Tile electric plants and water plants have broken down, and are not functioning. The American Bed Cross has contributed fifty thousand dollars towards rehabitation. Much more is expeoted from private sources. The United, States Marine Commander in Haiti has asked Santo Domingo to prepare.a landing place, as hie is planning to establish a regular aeroplane transportation service to carry the necessary supplies. The Dominican Government meanwhile is organising mobile kitchens to feed the-homeless.. ‘ Haiti.is ; sending relief, by motor lorries overland, but it is feared [.bat impassible roads might prevent their arrival.

The Cuban Government- has sent eight physicians by aeroplane, and has ordered the-scruiserl"“Patna”. to proceed immediately with food and medicine. '

• DEATH ROLL MOUNTS. WASHINGTON, September 6. Late reports from Santo Domingo on Friday‘ emphasised the destruction that has been wrought by the hurrir cane. i-yW /More than twelve hundred people were killed in ©anto Domingo city alone, and more than .five thousandpeople were injured there. There were 'thirty thousand people homeless-and starving,: iThe bodies of the dead are being Stacked r*ncl burnt in order to solve the sanitary problem. ' Among the buildings that nre left standing! In the city is the 400-ycat'' old cathedral, containing the reputed tomb of Christopher Columbus. Tlie towns in the interior of the island did not suffer so severely as did the capital. Relief is now. being despatched as quickly as possible frqpi,: ; all. points. i OVER 400 DEAD. NEW YORK, September G. Later advices place the hurricane dead, at least, four thousand. The advice stated that it was feared that the death, iroll would reach five thousand. •Only four hundred of the ten thousand houses in Santo Domingo are left standing, f , Dead bodies ate being pulled out of the wreckage at a dizzying rate. Thirty per cent, of more than five thousand injured are expected to dri. AN AWFUL PICTURE. NEW YORK, September 6. Describing the state of Santo Domingo, a-United-States Marine Officei said:—“lt is as if a giant hand hau smeared the town like a toy, and had then stirred the pieces with a stick. There is no water fit to drink. The waterworks have been demolished. The river is a sea of mud, and floods have washed out the newly-buried dead. The coffins float round- like Corks. The dead are being collected in mounds and trenches are being dug for. their, burial. They are also being burned above? the ground. Concrete cisterns are being used as funeral pyres, cremating as many as .fifty bodies at one time.” DAMAGE OVER 40 MILLION DOLLARS. SANTO DOMINGO. September 6. With four thousand dead already known, and the total indicated to be five thousand, the City of Santo Domingo to-day smoked with unnumbered funeral pyres gs the bodies of the jT- victims were consigned to the flames. Five thousand persons are seriously injured, many of whom are expected to die. >' Thus 'one-eight of the population of this, the oldest white city in the Western Hemisphere, have been wiped out. The . property, damage is now set down at between forty and fifty million dollars. Hour by hour the borrow grows as the refugees continue to drift in from the outlying towns, bringing new tales of death and destruction. the muddy street's of the city proper and on the banks of the River Osama, the dead yet lie in piles as a Hiepncc to health.