THOUSANDS HOMELESS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5286, 24 December 1946, Page 5

THOUSANDS HOMELESS

(Press Assn.-

OVER 3900 BUILDINGS AFFECTED BY DISASTER

—Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

TOKIO, Dec. 23. The toll of damage caused foy earthquake and tidal wave over an area of 15,000 square miles In Southern Japan is still mounting. Latest cornpilations show 946 dead, 1036 injured, 96 missing, 39,201 buildings, mostly homes, destroyed or damaged, and about 500,000 Japanese homeless. It is estimated that 2195 vessels were wrecked or driven ashore. • The buildings destroyed 01* damaged are mostly homes. Freezing temperatures aggravate the plight of the homeless. Disrupted ccmmunications still prevent accurate compilation of casualties and damage. American aviators flying over the devastated areas report thousands of Japanese driven from their homes huddled on beaches to avoid the fires which followed the earthquake. They also report Kushimoto threef ourths covered by water and Tanabe and :Seto badly damaged. At 'Shingu half the town was destroyed and the inhabitants had to blast a row of houses as a fir-ebreak. Food and* medicines are being rushed . by air, sea and land to the areas affected by the earthquake and tidal waves. The first earthquake shock has- been officially described at five times greater . than the shock which destroyed' Tokio in 1923.