A "BLACK GRAVE."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 293, 5 December 1908, Page 6

A "BLACK GRAVE."

50,001) FLOOD DEATHS. Bombay, October 10. The special correspondent at Hyderabad of the Advocate of India described the city as a "black grave." The bazaar* aii) transformed into an evil-smelling muss of stone, mud and decomposed flesh. Six hundred corpses were taken | out of the slush yesterday in one spoi, ami 100 others to-day. The funeral pyres cast a lurid glow over the search operations at night. A

long time will elapse before a delinile idea of the real extent of the disaster can lie obtained. The correspondent computes the number of deaths at .">0,0«0, and estimate* | the, damage at over £13,000,000. The .Nizam has received numerous niev j sages of sympathy, including one front the King-Kmpcror. Correspondent:] state that souietlii.ig

like onler is being restored gradually. Bodies are being rapidly unearthed, t" be properly buried or cremated, the bridges are being repaired with all speed, and it is hoped thai they w.il so<in be passable. All the ollicials, from the Minister downwards, are doing everything they can to aid in I lie work of the restoration of the railway, Tin' situation of the lle/.wada section is still apparently unimproved, and a correspondent slates that persistent rumors' are current to the effect that a disaster has befallen the town of liezwada owing to the force of the Hyderabad Hood running into tile Rristna. Such -lories are until nil at times of great excitement of the kind which Hyderabad is passing through, and must be taken with reserve. Labor is being requisitioned from all the outlying districts. One of the first effects of tile disaster was the desertion of all the shops, ollices, and houses in Scciinderabad by the employees, who rushed to Jlvderabad to lind their relatives.

Few Europeans venture near the scene now, owing to the dangerous odor which is carried by the wind for luilei.

Xo more heroic deed was performed among the many that followed the catastrophe than the bravery displayed by the lady assistant surgeons mid nurses on the I 'terrible night "of Sunday. It seems that they were implored by tha police to leave the hospital when tlm water was rising rapidly, but tuny resolutely declined to go unless with the patients. As the water rose higher and higher, and whilst corpses were yet being frang up against tlm hospital walls, the staff at last lifted the patients into safety on the roof. I hen they proceeded to pick out from the bodies two feet below the parapet those still with life in them, momentarily expecting that they themselves might be east into eternity. They were, however, actually reseueA on the

evening of Monday. One lady was so overwrought during the hours' of anxiety that she temporarily lost her reason, and sat on the parapet, with her feet dangling in the water, singing, "Pull for the shore, sailora."