THE LATE FLOODS IN JAMAICA.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 290, 11 September 1886, Page 2

THE LATE FLOODS IN JAMAICA.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE AND PROPERTY. &.fhe accounts to hand of the late disastrous floods in Jamaica, received by the S. S. Alvena which arrived at Colon fro:n Kingston on the 21st, verify the prediction we made on tho arrival of the first news which only gave particulars of the damage done in Kingston as communication was then entirely cut off with the interior, We now hear, as we feared we should, news of greater devastation in the agricultural districts of the country, scarcely one of which escaped the fury of the storm. The Gleaner is somewhat sensational in the accounts. It tells us of " men, women and children carried away in the flood," and that " graves threw up their dead and skeletons float in decayed coffins over the fair plains of the island." It is quite certain that great as tho damage was in Kingston and its vicinity, in the interior, and throughout tho entire island, it was much greater. It is difficult to understand from the accounts of the Colonial Standard and tho paper already mentioned in what part of the country the storm raged with the greatest fury. It seems to have done its work of destruction in all parts alike ; nor can we form even an approximate estimate of the number of lives lost, which certainly has been greater than was at first believed. The rapidity with which rivulets swell luto surging rivers in tho interior of the country, where the peasantry are chiefly to be found, is very likely to have created great mortality, but its extent will probably never be known. Extraordinary escapes from death were numerous. We give one furnished by the correspondent of the Colonial Standard who writes fro 1?) the Dry Harbour district of the island: " On Tuesday Bth instant, after a rainfall on the previous night over 12 inches the Cave River, which t>h«ks in Greenock, began to swell, and in a few hours a tremendous body of water was seen from Cave Valley coming from the direction of Greenock, when Mr Archer, the overseer of Cave Valley, hurried off with his wife and children in his buggy to the Great House on the hill, and before ho could return to take up another member of the family and an old man, lie wa3 hemmed in by the water, between Greenock Cane Piece and the Great House. The horses were cut from the trap by his servant who barely escaped drowning, while Mr Archer, with a lady and an old man, was left clinging to a wiro fence post. With the utmost difficulty he succeeded in ridding himself of a portion of his clothing, and his cries for help were heard by his book keepers iu tho works, who gallantly dashed into the water and went to his rescue. All this was being witnessed by Mrs Archer and the children from the top house, and I leave you to imagine their anguish. Before, however, the book-keepers reached Mr Archer, an unfortunate young man, Moss, went down to the water's edge, endeavouring to throw a rope across, and missing his footstep he fell into the water, and although he was au expert swimmer so violent then was the rushing water, that he was swept away in an instant and lost his life in his gallant attempt.to*savc Mr Archer-"

The following from Morant Bay a correspondent of the Gleaner who we presume has seen Niagara Falls : " Tlio reefs outside our roadstead were lashed by tremendous breakers, foaming and splashing in their fury. At one o'clock on Tuesday night the gale seemed to have reached its height, for it blew with considerable violence. The Mount has seldom been as swollen as it was on Monday and Tuesday the 7th and Bth. It tore away immense trees and damaged acres of valuable land in its mad and headlong rush to the sea was a sight never to bo forgotten to see its tearful waves and eddies which can only be imagined by those who have had the advantago of seeing the wild rushing water in the whirlpool rapids of the] great Niagara falls" The Kingston papers give details of the destruction of property in thejngricultural districts as far as they have been obtained, but their reproduction here would not be of general interest- The Standard of the 18th instant says : Rain continues almost in daily succession. Occasionally, even for "a few hours as on Tuesday, the sun shone out in all is brilliancy, giving promise of a return of more genial weather. Thus far, however, all such hopes have bee i doomed to disappointment, and from a rather lengthened experience, wo are inclined o tthink, that the present prolonged inclement and unusual weather will not bieak up until we have had that which hitherto has ever in the tropics heralded a return to fine weather—a thunder storm. We are told that the weather prophets have it that such will occur with great seventy to day—and their prognostications have already set many an old woman the designat'on not being solely confined to the weaker sex—in a most nervous condition, second only to that which was experienced by them, when tney brought themselves to credit a previous absurd prepheey of the would-be wise ones, that we were on the 7th inst., to have Lad six hours earthquake ! fol-

lowed by seven days' darkness. Bah ! the credulity of some people is carried to positive adsurdity. Old women, be not alarmed Considering the prolonged rains we have had, none other than late May Seasons, as of yore, we hear, they will not depart without a thunder storm. Nature will assert herself. The loss ot private and public property throughout the Island must be enormous and will be felt severely, particularly at this season of great agricultural and commercial depression. But Jxmaica cannot expect to be exempt from severe trials more than other countries.