WORSE THAN WAR.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5364, 14 December 1928, Page 4

WORSE THAN WAR.

GREAT STORMS THAT KILL. SOME RECORDED INSTANCESThe West Indian hurricane, blowing in a fury of 125 miles an. hour, which recently devastated Miami, Porto Rico, and the ill-fated Florida coast, came aimcjst at the end of the “danger season.” Another six weeks and the possibility of such a disaster would have been very slight. “June—too soon; July—stand by ; August—lock out you must; September—remember; October —all over.” So runs the old rhyme, and a very good warning it has proved. In 1Q26 the same coast was struck by a tornado which killed 1000 people, destroyed the homes of another 40,000, and caused nearly- £30,000,000 worth of damage before it blew itsplf out. Fire, landslides, and the terrible tidal waves, which accompany these storms, have again taken their, toll of life and property. Not a single crop and very few buildings in the island of Porto Rico remain unde-, stroyed.

It is a strange thing (says an Eng-, lish writer) that, though hurricanes have often killed more than battles, historians very rarely consider the outcome of Nature’s war on mankind worth recording. In the battle of Blenheim 17,000 men were killed'. In the Blackergungp cyclone, which visited the Ganges delta in 1876, 100,000 human beings were drowned in the tidal waves that swept over, the land, and as many more died as a result of the pestilence and famine that followed after the waters.

The only time that great stqrms are recorded in history is when they have played an active part in the sea fights of the world. We all know of the storm which wrecked the galdeons of the Spanish Armada after Drake had harried; them. Andi this is not the onjy occasion ip which Spain suffered at the hands of the tempest.

After the renowned fight of the Revenge, in which Sir, Richard ville took on a Spanish fleet of 53 ships single-handed and sank five of them, a great storm sprang up. It wrecked the remainder of the Spanish Ships and the treasure fleet which, they were escorting. The most terrnbje disaster of mod-, em times was the earthquake and stor,m that struck Japan on September 1, 1923, It is estimated that 300,000 people lost their lives in this. The typhoon raging at the time of the earthquake fanned the flames qf the burning buildings and swept away any shelters that the fleeing population made to protect themselves. So great was the havoc of the storm that experts attribute more than half the loss of life tq this a10ne,... Probably the gale that British folk call to mind was that which wrecked the Tay Bridge in 1879. The bridge was known tq be weak, and a 25 miles an hour .speed limit had been imposed. But on the night of December a south-west gale, spratig up and blew the bridge and a train crossing it into the river. Of the 75 passengers in the train not one survived. To this day wind gauges are kept in constant use on the Forth Bridge. These show that during the last 38 years the bridge has had many a hur-i ricane to withstand. But it has been designed to resist wind storms of 150 miles an hqur, and nothing greater than this is likely to be experienced in that temperate clime!