HURRICANE DESTRUCTION

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1931, Page 5

HURRICANE DESTRUCTION

OVER 1200 DEAD. [United Press Association. —By EJectrie Telegraph.—Copyright, j BELIZE, September 14. It was estimated here to-day that the death toll of the storm is more than -twelve hundred • lives.

FIRE FOLLOWS HURRICANE. i.t BELIZE, ' S6ptfe!/\)bLT 14. There is a fire in the suburban area, known as Mesopotamia, as the after math (of the hurricane. The fire is spreading rapidly.

DAMAGE OVER £200,000

RUGBY, September 12

According to information received by the Colonial Office, the hurricane which struck British Honduras on Thursday afternoon last, destroyed 70 per cent, of the town of Belize. The damage is estimated at more than £200,000. A flood followed the cyclone, and the towh was inundated to -a depth of from five to six feet;.:

SUPPLIES EN ROUTE

RUGBY, September 13.

Further information received by the Colonial office from the. Governor of. British Honduras indicated that the situation at Belize was well in hand, and that the survivors were in good health. Food, whfch.tis urgently , needed, and medical stores, were on the way in the cruiser , “Danae/ and. .the United States warship “Rochester.” ... The Colonial Office, through, the ’Shipping Conference, requested any British ships in the /vicinity ; to render any assistance in their power. The King and the Colonial Secretary have sent messages of sympathy.

TIDAL WAVE AND PLAGUE. TEGUCIGALPA (Honduras), Sept. 13. The Honduras Consul at Belize reported on ’Sunday that. plague had broken put in that, city, following upon th'e. hurricane.!, ~, , ■ The Consul also reported that a, tidal wave had followed the storriis.

BODIES CREMATED.

VAST FUNERAL PYRES

TEGUCIGALPA‘(Honduras), Sept. 13. Huge clouds oi smoke hung over Belize City on Sunday, as cremation was resorted to in disposing of the bodies of the victims of tire hurricane. Scores of bodies were burned on five vast funeral pyres. The cremated bodies, in addition to more than seven hundred others, 'were j placed in crude graves. % FIRE AND STORM. ACCURATE CHECK OP DEAD impossible. (Received this day at 9.25 a.m) BELIZE, September 13. Fite threatened to-day tb complect* the destruction O'f storm and flood, as the work of burying the dead from Thursday’s hurricane; estimated at ’ more than a thousand, went forward. Scores of bodies were burned on five great pyres almost in the centre of a . once flourishing, city.' At least seven / hundred bodies were buried in crude f) trenches dug in a cemetery by convict labourers. Still more bodies are floating down the river from the interior making an’ accurate check of the dead impossible. About one person in every fourteen among the city’s population lost their Jives. Hardly a family escaped.