WEST INDIES HURRICANE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 74, 25 October 1916, Page 5

WEST INDIES HURRICANE.

; LOSS OF LIFE AND MATERIAL. | TWO THOUSAND HOMELESS. Press Association—Copyright, Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received 10.15 a.m.) London, October 24. The Colonial Office reports that a ,hurricane at A'irgin Island caused j twenty-one deaths. Great damage was done to the crops, and small boats. Two thousand people are homeless. Virgin Islands, the most northern group of the Lesser Antilles, wero discovered by Columbus in 1194. The largest are Crab or Vieques, Oulebra, St. Thomas, St. John, Stinte Croix, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, and Anegada. They are all mountainous, projecting above the water like tips of submerged peaks, and are very rugged. The total area aggregates 328 square miles. The total population is about 50,000. Anegada, Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and a number of smaller islands, belong to Great Britain, with a total area of 58 square miles, and a population of 5,000, the chief town j being Roadtown in Tortola, The , majority of the population are negroes. The town of St. Thomas was formerly the commercial metropolis of the West Lilies.